Life with Chronic Conditions: SCOTUS’s Recent Action & its Far Reaching Consequences

On June 24th, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) announced its decision to overturn Roe v Wade, which basically takes away women’s rights to reproductive choices in at least 26 states. When the ruling was leaked in May, AAPD released the following statement:

    Bodily autonomy is a core principle of the disability rights movement. Disabled people have fought hard to win respect for our capacities, the right to make our own choices, and the support and access necessary to participate fully in American life. The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) opposes efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade, and any other legislative and judicial restrictions on abortion rights. Restricting access to abortion harms disabled people and undermines the ideal of full participation enumerated in the Americans with Disabilities Act. Full participation in society is contingent upon the freedom to make one’s own decisions and access to all forms of health care, including reproductive health care. People with disabilities, like all Americans, deserve unrestricted access to a comprehensive range of reproductive health care options, ranging from birth control and abortion to prenatal care and delivery. As we make this statement, we acknowledge that abortion politics have long presented complications unique to the disability community. Selective abortion is deeply rooted in societal ableism and eugenics. AAPD works to rid our nation of such ableism every day, and the complexities of our work teach us that restricting access to abortion is not the answer. 

 

Within hours of SCOTUS’s June 24^th decision, disability and various medical organization were coming forward understanding the full danger and implications this has for their constituency. 

-       The loss of bodily autonomy has a deep history within the disability community, said disability activist Emily Ladau. As apparent in present-day issues such as forced sterilization and conservatorships, disabled people are stripped of their right to make choices for their own bodies. With Roe v. Wade overturned, disabled people reflect on how it will impact them 

 

-       “Today’s decision attacks the fundamental right to privacy and substantive due process, disregards precedent and drastically narrows the scope of rights protected by the Fourteenth Amendment,” said Bascom with the Autistic Self Advocacy Network. “In doing so, it threatens disabled people’s personal rights surrounding marriage, intimacy, sterilization, medical care, housing, speech and more.” Disability Scoop

-       The end of Roe v. Wade will not only jeopardize access to abortion in many states, it could have wide-ranging and unpredictable consequences for medical care, including fertility treatment, contraception, and cancer care. Roe world will be, in many ways, a new era for medical care in the United States, one that could transform medical services for conditions that range far beyond pregnancy, either by making them illegal or by putting their legality in question. It’s not just about Abortion: How birth control, cancer care, and more could change in a post Roe America 

• 13 Healthcare Responses to Roe V. Wade 

 

Below is but one example of how overturning Roe V Wade will impact health care. Mifepristone, known as the “Abortion Pill,” has potential uses far beyond ending early pregnancies. It’s been demonstrated that it provides palliative beneficial effects for patients with a variety of advanced cancers that were resistant to standard anticancer therapy. Efficacy of the progesterone receptor antagonist mifepristone for palliative therapy of patients with a variety of advanced cancer types. Anticancer Res30(2): 623-628, 2010. PMID: 20332480.

 

While the drug has FDA approval for treating Cushing’s Disease, mifepristone is also being investigated in clinical trials for breast, brain, and prostate cancers, alcoholism, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Drug repurposing, also known as “off label use” saves money and time to try and see if approved drugs can be used for other conditions. Such research is now in jeopardy due to the complexities of,mifepristone being banned in certain states.

 

 With Justice Clarence Thomas noting that the Supreme Court should reconsider its past rulings such as rights to contraception, same-sex relationships and same sex marriage, I can only shutter at what else they want to “reconsider” that will have a direct bearing on those who are living with disabilities, chronic disease and other health issues. 

 

This post is not meant to start a debate about abortion. Rather it’s a wake-up call that the June 24^th decision has far reaching consequences. Anyone affected by a disability and/or serious health condition needs to be aware of the potential implications.

 

 If you haven’t joined the local chapter of the condition specific group, e.g. American Lung Association, that relates to your condition, now’s the time to do so.   These organizations follow state as well as national legislation and keep members informed about what the potential impact could be for you and/or for the person you care for.