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- Rep. Lois Frankel of Florida said there will be “government-mandated pregnancies” if Roe v. Wade is overturned.
- “You heard about in China or countries where they forced abortions, which is horrifying,” she told Insider.
- Her remarks come after a leaked draft Supreme Court opinion called Roe “egregiously wrong from the start.”
Rep. Lois Frankel on Thursday warned that the overturn of Roe v. Wade will result in “government-mandated pregnancies.”
On Monday, Politico published a leaked draft opinion in which Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito called the 1973 landmark Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortions nationwide “egregiously wrong from the start.”
Abortion will remain legal in the United States until the court hands down a final verdict, which could come as early as June when the bench decides the verdict for another abortion case. But the draft itself was enough to put reproductive rights activists and doctors who perform abortions on edge.
If Roe were to be overturned, it would be illegal in 23 states to obtain an abortion. And in several others, there might be added restrictions.
“This is government-mandated pregnancies,” she told Insider in an interview. “That’s exactly what it is. You heard about in China or countries where they forced abortions, which is horrifying. This is forcing pregnancies. And, to me, it is probably one of the worst ways you can deprive a woman of her ability to really be who she wants to be.”
For reproductive health experts, China’s one-child policy often used to be the best way to explain reproductive coercion and a lack of bodily autonomy, according to Dr. Carole Joffe, a sociologist at the University of California, San Francisco. Women who were pregnant in China were forced to have abortions when the one-child policy was in effect, Joffe previously explained to Insider.
The leaked draft was a “shock to the system” for Frankel, one of the representatives who originally sponsored the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2021. The bill, which “prohibits governmental restrictions on the provision of, and access to, abortion services,” was passed in the House last year, but still awaits a vote in the Senate.
“It’s almost like an electric volt going through your body,” she said.
“I lived during the time before Roe v. Wade, and so, I know so many of the horror stories of girls being mangled, actually losing their ability to have a child, getting killed,” she continued.
Frankel said she’s unsure whether the Senate will take up the WHPA in response to Roe potentially getting overturned.
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