One in four women
in the United States will have abortions, according to data from the Guttmacher
Institute, a health research and policy organisation, and the lack of options
for legal abortion will take a heavy financial toll on women. Without the option
of abortion, women will be forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term and
this would lead to them losing out on the opportunity to pursue and education,
raise incomes or build wealth.

It is this option
for abortion that the United States’ Supreme Court’s draft opinion, that leaked
to the press, seeks to take away. By overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark
court judgement that gave federal protection to abortion, the United States
would be turning the clock back on reproductive rights by over half a century
and will be doing away with the gains of legal abortion.

Also Read | Roe v Wade: List of US states that could ban abortion

In 1973, when the
Roe v. Wade judgement came out, it became an inflection point for reproductive
rights in the US. Educational and economic benefits of an entire generation was
ushered in through the judgement, according to Cailin Knowles Myers, a
professor of economics and co-director of the Middlebury Initiative for Data
and Digital Methods at Middlebury College.

Also Read | US Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade draft opinion exposes partisan fissures

“Legalization of
abortion has had huge effects on the ages at which women become mothers and the
circumstances in which they became mothers,” said Myers to NBC News.

For Katie Porter, Democrat
representative for California, pregnancy and parenthood is an economic
decision. A single mother herself, Porter said that forcing women to have and
raise unplanned children would make it harder for them to pursue an education,
increase their incomes and build wealth.

Also Read | A new America: What happens if Roe v Wade falls

Meanwhile,
according to a recent National Bureau of Economic Research paper, found that
women who were denied abortions continued to struggle five years later because
of the impact unexpected pregnancies have on women’s ability to complete their
careers.