Magnificent News: The Week in Ideas: Abortion access in America will now depend more than ever on luck

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By Ruth Marcus
Deputy editorial page editor

Our columnist Molly Roberts was about to turn 22. She was using an IUD, one of the most reliable forms of birth control. When her period was late and she started throwing up, she did a home pregnancy test — and the second, tell-tale line did not appear.

But Roberts, it turned out when she finally went to the doctor, was pregnant after all. She wrote about the abortion she chose to have — against the wishes of her then-boyfriend, with the support of her mother — on the day the Supreme Court overruled the right that has been in place throughout her life.

Roberts uses the episode to muse about the role of chance and luck.

"I was lucky, because I wasn't the 15-year-old in the waiting room whose sweatshirt swallowed her up; or the woman who didn't have a ride home after sedation; or the couple who lingered nervously at the counter asking about insurance," she writes. "Because more people wanted to support me than to stop me, and because, most of all, the law allowed this — not only where I was, but everywhere."

Now, we are about to enter an unfamiliar new era, where access to abortion in this country will depend more than ever on luck — the luck of where you live, the luck of how healthy your bank account is.

As Roberts puts it, "Thanks to a handful of justices on the Supreme Court, the futures of women in the United States will depend on a roll of the dice. We're either lucky, or we're not. I know a little bit about both."

I don't know if you will enjoy her column — it's too unsettling for that — but I do hope it will make you think, as with the rest of our offerings this week.