Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf
Page Number: 198

Cite as:  597 U. S. ____ (2022) 

51 

BREYER, SOTOMAYOR, and KAGAN, JJ., dissenting 

Even with Roe’s protection, these women face immense ob-
stacles to raising the money needed to obtain abortion care
early in their pregnancy.  See Brief for Abortion Funds 7– 
12.26  After today, in States where legal abortions are not 
available,  they  will  lose  any  ability  to  obtain  safe,  legal 
abortion care.  They will not have the money to make the
trip  necessary;  or  to  obtain  childcare  for  that  time;  or  to 
take time off work.  Many will endure the costs and risks of
pregnancy  and  giving  birth  against  their  wishes.    Others 
will  turn  in  desperation  to  illegal  and  unsafe  abortions. 
They may lose not just their freedom, but their lives.27 

Finally, the expectation of reproductive control is integral
to  many  women’s  identity  and  their  place  in  the  Nation. 
See Casey, 505 U. S., at 856.  That expectation helps define 

—————— 

26 The average cost of a first-trimester abortion is about $500.  See Brief 
for  Abortion  Funds  7.    Federal  insurance  generally  does  not  cover  the 
cost of abortion, and 35 percent of American adults do not have cash on 
hand to cover an unexpected expense that high.  Guttmacher Institute, 
M. Donovan, In Real Life: Federal Restrictions on Abortion Coverage and 
https://www. 
the  Women  They 
guttmacher.org/gpr/2017/01/real-life-federal-restrictions-abortion-coverage-
and-women-they-impact#:~:text=Although%20the%20Hyde%20Amendment%
20bars,provide%20abortion%20coverage%20to%20enrollees;  Brief  for 
Abortion Funds 11. 

Impact 

2017), 

(Jan. 

5, 

27 Mississippi  is  likely  to  be  one  of  the  States  where  these  costs  are 
highest, though history shows that it will have company.  As described 
above, Mississippi provides only the barest financial support to pregnant 
women.  See  supra,  at  41–42.    The  State  will  greatly  restrict  abortion
care without addressing any of the financial, health, and family needs 
that motivate many women to seek it.  The effects will be felt most se-
verely, as they always have been, on the bodies of the poor.  The history 
of state abortion restrictions is a history of heavy costs exacted from the 
most vulnerable women.  It is a history of women seeking illegal abor-
tions in hotel rooms and home kitchens; of women trying to self-induce 
abortions by douching with bleach, injecting lye, and penetrating them-
selves with knitting needles, scissors, and coat hangers.  See L. Reagan, 
When  Abortion  Was  a  Crime  42–43,  198–199,  208–209  (1997).    It  is  a 
history of women dying.