White Middle Class Women Will Continue to Have Access to Safe Abortion.

White and middle class women will continue to have access safe abortion even after abortion is criminalized and banned.

During a discussion on reforming abortion laws in Nicaragua where abortion is still criminalized, an activists pointed out that criminalizing abortion \has not ended abortion. Instead, it has made safe abortion inaccessible to poor and indigent women.

She supported her claim by pointing out that even though polls and surveys show that both middle class and poor Nicaraguan women continue to get abortion,the only women serving time for abortion are poor women.

That discrepancy is because poor women don’t have access to safe abortion. They get abortion from unsafe “back alley” abortion providers. These abortions are more likely to result in complications that send the women to hospitals where the staff is mandated to report suspected abortion.

Middle class Nicaraguan women, on the other hand, can afford to get safe abortion from medical professionals working in private clinics. These abortions are unlikely to result in complications that risk the women being reported to the criminal justice system.

But Nicaragua is not a unique case. In every country where abortion is illegal or criminal, rich and middle…