Minority women have most to lose if U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, analysis shows

Minority women will have the most to lose if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns abortion rights, according to data analyzed by The Associated Press.

A leaked draft Supreme Court opinion suggests the court's conservative majority is poised to overturn the landmark 1973 decision legalizing abortion. The draft decision is not yet final, but sent shockwaves through the U.S. after it was leaked to the public.

Overturning the Roe v. Wade decision would give states authority to decide abortion's legality. Roughly half of them, largely in the U.S. South and Midwest, are likely to quickly ban abortion.

Already, Black or Hispanic women living in conservative states that already limit access to abortions are far more likely than a white woman to have an abortion.

If the Supreme Court allows states to further restrict or even ban abortions, minority women who already face limited access to health care will bear the brunt of it, according to The Associated Press' analysis.

Racial disparities in abortion

In Mississippi, people of colour comprise 44 per cent of the population but 81 per cent of women receiving abortions, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, which tracks health statistics.

In Texas, they form 59 per cent of the population and 74 per cent of those receiving abortions. The numbers in Alabama are 35 per cent and 69 per cent. In Louisiana, minorities represent 42 per cent of the population, according to the state health department, and about 72 per cent of those receiving abortions.

"Abortion restrictions are racist," said Cathy Torres, an organizing manager with Frontera Fund, a Texas organization that helps women pay for abortions.

"They directly impact people of colour, Black, brown, Indigenous people ... people who are trying to make ends meet."

Andy Gipson, a former member of the Mississippi Legislature who is now the state's agriculture and commerce commissioner, said race had nothing to do with passage of Mississippi's law against abortion after the 15th week, which is now before the Supreme Court.

"It's about saving lives of the unborn and the lives and health of the mother, regardless of what colour they are," said Gipson, a white Republican who is also a Baptist minister.

Tanya Britton, a former president of Pro-Life Mississippi, often drives three hours from her home in the northern part of the state to pray outside an abortion clinic in Jackson.

Britton is Black, and says it's a tragedy that the number of Black babies aborted since Roe would equal the population of several large cities. She also said people are too casual about terminating pregnancies.

Harder for low-income women

Laurie Bertram Roberts, executive director of the Alabama-based Yellowhammer Fund, which provides financial support for women seeking abortion, said women of colour in states with restrictive abortion laws often have limited access to health care and a lack of choices for effective birth control, as well as limited sex education in schools.

If abortions are outlawed, women of colour – often poor – will likely have the hardest time, whether that means traveling to distant parts of the country to terminate pregnancies or raising children without enough money, said Roberts, who is Black and once volunteered at Mississippi's only abortion clinic.

"We're talking about folks who are already marginalized," Roberts said.

Across the country, U.S. Census Bureau information analyzed by The Associated Press shows fewer Black and Hispanic women have health insurance, especially in states with tight abortion restrictions.

For example, in Texas, Mississippi and Georgia, at least 16 per cent of Black women and 36 per cent of Latino women were uninsured in 2019, some of the highest such rates in the country.

Torres said historically, anti-abortion laws have been crafted in ways that hurt low-income women. She pointed to the Hyde Amendment, a 1980 law that prevents the use of federal funds to pay for abortions except in rare cases.

She also cited the 2021 Texas law that bans abortion after around six weeks of pregnancy. Where she lives, near the U.S.-Mexico border in the Rio Grande Valley, women are forced to travel to obtain abortions and must pass in-state border patrol checkpoints where they have to disclose their citizenship status, she said.

Advocates say in many places where abortion services are being curtailed, there's also little support for women who carry a baby to term.

Mississippi is one of the poorest states, and people in low-wage jobs often don't receive health insurance. Women can enrol in Medicaid — a government program that helps with healthcare costs — during pregnancy, but that coverage disappears soon after they give birth.

Mississippi also has the highest infant mortality rate in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Black infants were about twice as likely as white infants to die during the first year of life in Mississippi, according to the March of Dimes, a non-profit organization focused on infant health.