by Ashton Lattimore This article was originally published at Prism  Pregnancy is right up there with aging on the list of human experiences that will permanently change a person’s body. Scars and complications from C-section surgery, lasting pain and sexual dysfunction after some vaginal births, urinary incontinence and other pelvic floor problems, separation of the abdominal muscles, lingering high blood pressure, increased risk of heart problems, and more can await those who experience pregnancy and childbirth, to say nothing of the more “cosmetic” but no less lasting changes in bone structure, breast shape, and even shoe size. And that’s just for those of us who survive. For far too many pregnant people in the U.S., especially Black women and other women of color, carrying a fetus to term results in the most permanent and final body change of all: death. The U.S. maternal mortality rate is more than double that of most other high-income countries, and has been on the rise since 2000. Black women in the U.S. are at the highest risk, being three to four times more likely than white women to die as a result of pregnancy or childbirth. Unsurprisingly, research has found that banning abortions is likely to make the situation far worse, resulting in a 33% increase in pregnancy-related deaths among Black women, and 21% overall. But to hear the state of Mississippi and Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett tell it at Wednesday’s oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the state forcing people to carry unwanted pregnancies to term is a perfectly defensible legal and moral act because the burden of mere pregnancy is more “narrow”—less permanent—than that of parenthood. Coney Barrett argued from the bench—via a comment masquerading as a question—that while landmark abortion rights cases Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey emphasized the “burdens of parenting” as a reason why it was unfair to unduly restrict abortions, that the right to abortion care is no longer needed since nearly every state now offers safe haven laws and adoption to terminate parental rights after birth. The argument is a willful erasure of the considerable physical and financial burdens of pregnancy, many of which don’t simply evaporate when a child has been born and given up for adoption. I should know—I’ve been pregnant twice, and have seen firsthand the impact of pregnancy and childbirth not just on the body, but on one’s life as a whole. Read more