Overturning Roe & the Implications on Child Care
This blog post was written by our marketing intern, Pilar McDonald. She talks about the consequences of overturning Roe v. Wade on families in the U.S., specifically through a lens of child care implications.
It happened. Last Friday, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that protected the right to have an abortion for the past 50 years. This ruling leaves individual states with the power to ban or limit the right to an abortion.
While many abortion activists expected this ruling, its announcement is nothing short of painful, emotional, and disheartening. In a country that has continuously demonstrated a lack of interest in caring for its parents and children, Roe being overturned lands like salt on an open wound. Forcing individuals to give birth, regardless of their desires or capacity to have a child, in a country that does not provide universal paid leave, healthcare, or childcare, is a life sentence that no one should have to face alone.
The financial burden of having a child
Despite being one of the wealthiest nations in the world, the United States is seriously lacking when it comes to providing federal support for families. Raising a child is prohibitively expensive for many people. Care.com’s 2022 Cost of Care Survey found that “51% of parents say they spend more than 20% of their household income on child care, and 72% of parents report spending 10% or more.” According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), “child care is considered affordable when it costs families no more than 7% of their household income.”
The Guttmacher Institute reports that almost 50% of people who have abortions are below the federal poverty line. Rachel Jones, a principal research scientist at Guttmacher describes the consortium of individuals who are having abortions as “people who don’t have access to health care, access to contraception, who, when facing an unintended pregnancy, don’t have the resources to have another child.”
Many people who pursue an avenue of abortion do not have the financial capacity to have a child. With the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, lower-income individuals will find it even harder to obtain safe abortions. The increase in forced births among low-income communities combined with the high cost of childcare will inevitably leave families in cycles of poverty.
While childcare’s outrageously expensive nature has profound effects on many parents, access to childcare is another hurdle. The fight for finding childcare is disproportionately difficult for low-income families, many of whom live in “childcare deserts.” The Center for American Progress defines childcare deserts as “any census tract with more than 50 children under age 5 that contains either no child care providers or so few options that there are more than three times as many children as licensed child care slots.” The Center also finds that 54% of people who live in childcare deserts hail from the lowest-income neighborhoods in the United States. So, lower-income families are already at a disadvantage in both finding and financing childcare.
The difficult journey of finding reliable, affordable childcare will continue to pull parents out of the workforce. The Cost of Care Study found that “parents are making career sacrifices to afford care, with 31% considering taking on a second job, 26% reducing their hours at work, 25% changing jobs, and 21% leaving the workforce entirely.” These career changes will be more prevalent in lower-income communities, where individuals will also face more barriers in finding safe abortion opportunities.
No paid family leave
Having a child is traumatic physically, emotionally, and mentally, even when that child is planned for. This experience is only made more difficult by the lack of paid leave in federal and corporate policies. To expect an individual to carry a pregnancy to term and then refuse to provide them with paid leave or affordable, accessible childcare is horrendous. In a country that has continuously demonstrated a lack of care for families, this next step in overturning Roe is a setback that will have ripple effects for decades.
