How the End of Roe v. Wade is Impacting Americans

our our right tode our our our right tode our there are thousands of people protesting across the country for their right to health care and against outlawing abortion I mean the size of these protests represents that a majority of Americans around 61% say that abortion should be legal in some form what many people fear right now is that the Supreme Court will overturn roie Wade which protected women's right to abortion for the last 50 years in early May the unprecedented leak of a draft opinion signaled the Court's intention to overturn all or part of roie Wade the shock felt by millions of American women underscores what could be a new reality in this country zero Federal protections for this kind of medical care that would mean a total of 26 States more than half the country attempting to Outlaw abortion [Music] overnight including [Music] Louisiana Hope Medical how may I help you no ma'am unfortunately we are fully booked there may be protests out on the sidewalk when you arrive if you see them just ignore them and come into the clinic yes you can come here unfortunately we're fully booked right now but it's taking anywhere from 1 to 2 weeks for us to reach out Hope Medical Group for women is the last place to terminate a pregnancy in Louisiana as surrounding states have restricted abortion staff here have seen a roughly 70% increase in the number of women coming in for care okay you're welcome take care Kathleen Pitman has been running this clinic for 30 years Hope Medical this is Kathleen how may I help you do you ever have to turn women away we are we are turning women away we're giving them numbers um we're referring them to you know Colorado we're on the phones every day people crying I mean you know because they can't get in anywhere do you think in a few months after 42 years of this Clinic being open you could be closing your doors it's a distinct possibility yes I mean I'm very afraid of that yes one in four American women will have an abortion in their lifetime the women we spoke with asked to remain anonymous I can't physically financially take care of another baby this single mother of four who works more than 70 hours a week as a home nurse drove 3 hours from Texas to get to this Clinic I don't know what I'm going to do to maintain this baby you're at your limits I'm at my limits I'm already a mother so I know it's really hard financially I'm not where I want to be and I don't think I'll be able to take care of another child so I wouldn't want to bring a child into this world that I couldn't take care of to perform abortion violence on defenseless babies is Unthinkable abortion is murder we're going to sign every piece of pro-life legislation hits our desk anti-abortion lawmakers have already introduced 546 bills this year some criminalize abortion others would make contraception illegal and one would allow individuals to sue anyone helping a woman cross state lines to get an [Music] abortion we're at the Oklahoma state capital to meet with Senator Nathan Dom he's authored some of the strictest abortion legislation in the country which will force more women to carry out their unplanned pregnancies what's clear is that these laws will create an incredible financial burden what's unclear is who is going to pay for this Dom has been pushing to completely Outlaw abortion including in cases of rape or incest since 2016 his most recent law makes it a felony for doctors to even attempt an abortion they could face up to 10 years in prison in $100,000 fine you're attacking this issue from multiple different angles here how do these legislations collectively compare to other laws in the country my Senate Bill 612 is is from conception um with the only exception being the life of the mother so U I believe it is the most pro-life piece of legislation in the country right now that has been signed into law so how much Public Funding goes to these mothers in need um I don't have the statistics uh I can get you those specific numbers um but um there like I said there's not just public money that goes to it there's also private resources churches and nonprofits and those entities should be stepping up and they should be the the primary ones to do that because uh they do better with resources than the government does I me I asked that because you're saying that there's enough there's enough money there are enough resources for these mothers but you don't know how much public money goes to them we haven't finalized our budget for this year I mean every year we do have a a budget that we do allocate money for that but knowing that you were going to you know Outlaw abortion this year why not get that funding in place last year I mean it's like you're waiting for women to be in incredibly desperate positions before you help them we did not know any of these bills that were going to pass well I knew I would be working on it but in this legislative process you never know what bill will ultimately make it across the Finish Line it's often in the states outlawing abortion where it's hardest to raise a child the Oklahoma Legislature allocated $3 million this year to what Dom sees as the solution Pregnancy Resource Centers or prc's clinics that offer diapers and baby clothes along with counseling that's enough for each mom who has a baby after an unintended pregnancy to receive one month supply of diapers it's not enough without additional support from private funding many American moms may not be able to afford food or housing I got warm gel for you today good it's better than cold gel do you see the wav each one of those yeah that's cardiac movement oh my gosh it is a heartbeat a you hear it yeah I did hear it Courtney Barker is 29 weeks pregnant she's spent most of her pregnancy at the cottage a PRC and maternity home that dissuades women from getting abortions by offering resources like regular meals housing job placement and parenting classes during pregnancy and a year postpartum can't wait to see his face he's going to be so cute I know it's going be awesome every new mom experiences a lot of stress is there anything that's making you nervous I've actually had a couple of emotional breakdowns but I'm doing better than I would if I was alone [Music] we're the second owners of this property and we knew when we saw this place that this was going to be the cottage the need for the services Julie Mercy's program provides will likely increase dramatically I know our legislators and I know their intention is to be the most pro-life state in the United States what does it mean for you all you'll continue doing what you're doing but I would imagine they are going to be more women that are going to be saying hey Julie we need a bed we need to be looking at what does it look like a year from now what does it look like 3 years from now is we have to say no or turn someone way more frequently what do we need to do in terms of raising the funds building the facilities being ready for the increase of numbers this is my room I like made little place and put stuff everywhere does anyone live with you in here now not right now are these clothes for your little one yeah this is probably his first home outfit I think it would be cute in addition to the stress of her unplanned pregnancy Courtney recently hit rock bottom unemployed homeless and struggling with addiction she's now in recovery what was it like when you found out you were pregnant um it was really exciting and then it became more about what am I going to do to be self-supporting when you learned you were pregnant was there any part of you that considered terminating pregnancy um actually there was I mean it's it's always been an idea but I was really more looking at adoption I was like sleeping on a park bench a year ago 6 months ago and I I want to be a soccer mom all of a sudden like doesn't mentally that doesn't make sense to me so there's just a lot of emotional preparations if you didn't have help from these organizations where would you be I I would be in a really bad place to be honest should did this law take effect thousands of women may be forced to give birth on average the cottage serves just 10 women a month while important it's a drop in the bucket as women bear the trauma of this Public Health crisis researchers say the economy will also feel a shock The Institute for Women's policy research found that state laws like those in Oklahoma cost the country $15 billion annually due to women leaving the workforce reduced earnings and time away from work if these laws were lifted an additional 505,000 women would enter the labor force and earn about $3 billion per year in taxable income the economic effect is striking I think if you don't know anyone who's had an abortion it's because nobody's told you that they've had an abortion and it's across all socioeconomic groups Dr Diana green Foster led the largest study to date on the impact access to abortion has on people's lives women make up 57% of the workforce so what happens when they're denied access to an abortion what we see from our data is that people who are denied an abortion have a sharp increase in not working a sharp decrease in full-time employment and over 50% are no longer working at all so there'll be uh more families trying to raise kids with without enough resources to pay for basic living needs there's nothing good good in that for the economy 36 million women live in the 26 states that will likely Outlaw abortion the scale of this is enormous and it just makes me think that you know all of us will feel this impact yes this will result in more kids being raised in poverty more women dying of um maternal causes this is a long-term problem that we that will be largely hidden from us there's no catching up when you have a newborn baby that you don't have enough resources to take care of there's no making up for [Music] that the Supreme Court will announce their decision by early July until then millions of Americans brace for what could be the end of their right to a personal freedom are we going to stand for this are we piss the off so it's time for us to get together and fight help no we won't go we will act up what are we fighting forom what are we fighting for freom