The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Opinion
6 — Wednesday, July 20, 2022
BRANDON COWIT
Managing Editor
Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
tothedaily@michigandaily.com
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890.
VANESSA KIEFER
Editor in Chief
From The Daily: Now, more than ever, we need to
stand up for abortion rights
*Content warning: rape, violence
T
he
recent
overturning
of Roe v. Wade has left
United
States
citizens
shocked and undoubtedly angry,
considering
most
Americans
do not support the outlawing of
abortion. Overturning Roe v. Wade
means disaster for women across
the country. As a result of the 6-3
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health
Organization ruling, the legality of
abortions is now determined by each
individual state, not by the federal
government, rescinding a nearly
50-year-old federal legal right. As
of early July, only a few states have
directly
banned
abortions,
but
countless others seem to be pushing
to restrict access to abortions. This
abolition of a constitutional right
puts the health, safety and even lives
of millions of people with uteruses at
risk.
Specifically, women of Color
and low-income women are most
harmed by this recent Supreme
Court ruling. Twenty-six states
are likely to ban abortion, most
of them in the South — where
over half of Black Americans live.
Because Black women are almost
four times more likely to have the
procedure done than white women,
the impact of this ruling on them
is even more unjust. Indigenous
and Alaska Native women seeking
abortions, especially those in rural
or remote communities, will suffer
compounded effects from reduced
abortion access. Compared to white
women, they are two to three times
more likely to die in childbirth.
Rearranging breakfast to replace
traditional dinner, as well as making
lunch replace traditional breakfast
and
dinner
replace
traditional
lunch, would both radically improve
human health as well as improve
our
day-to-day
routines.
While
offering the opportunity for the
United States to finally have an
unproblematic cultural tradition,
rearranging
the
meals
would
cognitively and digestively benefit
the American people. Now, those
stacks of buttermilk pancakes with
warm syrup and crispy bacon can be
enjoyed as a delightful evening treat.
Sophia Lehrbaum is an Opinion
Columnist and can be reached at
lehrbaum@umich.edu.
In addition to these racial
inequities, abortion is and always
has been a class issue. In states
where
abortion
is
outlawed,
poor women will be forced to
have children — no matter the
circumstances leading up to their
pregnancies — due to the financial
resources traveling to another state
requires. Those unable to travel
might engage in unsafe abortions.
A nationwide abortion ban is
projected to increase the number of
pregnancy-related deaths by 21%.
America has decided to infringe
on women’s rights, imprinting
sexism within our legal code. These
women who are denied abortions
in their home states are also four
times more likely to live below the
federal poverty line, assuming they
survive their potentially deadly
pregnancies. When two people
might be in the same situation
with an unwanted pregnancy,
wealth could be the deciding factor
between life and death.
Though the idea may seem far-
fetched, this decision could be
the harbinger of a government
overtly influenced by Christian
beliefs. This is the first time a
constitutional right has been taken
away by the Supreme Court, and
Justice Clarence Thomas stated
in a concurring opinion that
the Supreme Court should also
reconsider other legal rights not
explicitly stated in the Constitution.
This
includes
Griswold
v.
Connecticut (the right to buy and
use contraceptives), Lawrence v.
Texas (the right to same-sex sexual
activity) and Obergefell v. Hodges
(the right to same-sex marriage).
While
the
Dobbs
v.
Jackson
Women’s
Health
Organization
decision and Thomas’s seeming
indifference to fundamental civil
rights
might
seem
shockingly
barbaric, they come as no surprise
after the last six years of American
politics.
By electing Trump into office
in 2016, America doomed itself.
Trump explicitly stated in the 2016
presidential debates that he would
appoint
multiple
conservative
Supreme Court justices in order to
overturn Roe v. Wade — and that
was just the beginning. Throughout
his presidency, he leaned on pro-
Christian, conservative rhetoric
to build and sustain his political
base, creating room within the
American political sphere for more
radical,
conservative,
religious
ideologies to affect public policy.
This rhetoric led to a set of policies
that includes (but is not limited to)
the Muslim travel ban, revoking
rules that allowed transgender kids
to use their preferred bathroom
and privileging federal COVID
aid to religious organizations over
secular ones. Clearly, and as stated
in the U.S. Constitution, America
is prohibited from establishing a
state-sponsored religion. But, with
the passage of these archaic anti-
abortion laws, the line between
Christian churches and the state is
becoming dangerously blurred.
While the overturning of Roe v.
Wade has often been referred to as
a women’s rights issue, the impact
of this decision will be felt — in
varying degrees — by transgender
men,
nonbinary
people
and
cisgender men as well. This is a
decision that affects us all, and we
must respond to it in a way that
reflects its severity and breadth.
QUIN ZAPOLI
Editorial Page Editor
Stop treating PAs at UHS as
second-class providers
The dangers of the extreme concentration
of political power in the Supreme Court
I
n 1787, America’s Founding
Fathers
designed
our
government
with
three
branches so that no single branch
could overpower another. The
Framers found great comfort in this
structure, as it provided a safety
blanket
against
governmental
tyranny — something they very
much feared due to their previous
lack of representation in the British
Parliament. In addition to this
separation of powers, a meticulous
system of checks and balances was
put in place to allow the branches
to “check” one another’s power.
After nearly 250 years, this
structure
still
stands
today.
Nonetheless,
its
well-thought
nature fails to be flawless. For
one, its design was intended
to only benefit wealthy, white
men. Furthermore, the judicial
branch has proven itself to be
excessively powerful throughout
history and especially so recently,
with decisions like the recent
overturning of Roe v. Wade.
There are plenty of articles
and newscasts out there to tell
you all you need to know about
the appalling loss of a woman’s or
any person with an active uterus’s
right to choose, a right to their
body and a right to her or their
privacy. To say this decision is
devastating is an understatement
— it is truly setting us back in time
and progress. I could write an
entire book-length rant for you,
but my point today lies elsewhere:
now that Roe v. Wade has been
overturned, it can and probably
will mean additional reversals
that further marginalize women,
people of Color, members of the
LGBTQ+ community and other
groups of the like.
The Supreme Court overturned
Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson
Women’s
Health
Organization,
with a majority of justices arguing
that a woman’s right to abortion is
not guaranteed in the Constitution.
W
hile on a U-M Blue
Bus
bound
for
North Campus on a
particularly pleasant day, I decided
to enjoy the ride free of distraction.
I put my AirPods away, cracked
open the window and took in the
breeze of the Huron River running
parallel to me. My moment of
meditation was cut short, however,
by a group of students on the bus
who had just been dismissed from
an organic chemistry lab. After a
normal discussion about titrations,
the post-lab discussion write up
and weekend plans, one of the
students began recounting an
experience they had at University
Health Services that morning.
“I bet she was just pretending to
know how to use the stethoscope,”
he said.
“There’s no way a PA should be
able to run an entire appointment.
I’m telling you guys — our tuition
money is being wasted.”
After the student finished his
tirade against the UHS physician
assistant who treated him for an
ear infection a few hours before
their lab, his fellow classmates
began to chime in. “I just can’t
believe we have to settle,” “there
are no real doctors left in primary
care” and “let’s boycott UHS,”
were among the statements made.
The students were quite a
few rows ahead of me, but their
disdain traveled throughout the
whole bus with the shock-factor
of a code blue alarm. Their blatant
disregard for and disparaging
attitude
toward
advanced
practice providers such as nurse
practitioners (NPs) and physician
assistants (PAs) that serve a
critical role at UHS horrified me.
Those students’ words shed light
on the crux of a big problem: the
disintegration of respect for team-
based healthcare.
I, like the students on the bus,
am a pre-medical student. I would
hope that all future physicians
choose a career in healthcare to
be, at the core, a patient advocate.
However, advocacy is never a one-
man show.
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THE MICHIGAN DAILY
SUMMER EDITORIAL BOARD
NAMRATHA NELAPUDI
LSA Junior
ANNA TRUPIANO
Opinion Columnist