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While Roe v. Wade tends to get the spotlight when it comes to discussing abortion jurisprudence, the lesser-known Harris v. McRae is responsible for putting the right enshrined in Roe out of reach for poor women, as CRRJ's Executive Director Jill E. Adams and Jessica Arons laid out in " A Travesty of Justice: Revisiting Harris v. McRae" in the latest edition of William & Mary Journal of Women and the Law. 
The 1980 U.S. Supreme Court case upheld the constitutionality of the Hyde Amendment--an annual appropriations measure that denies Medicaid coverage for abortion except for life-threatening pregnancies or those resulting from rape or incest. The decision allows for a two-tiered system, where those who qualify for--and need--financial assistance have to find the money to pay for an abortion out of pocket.
"It is because of the court's quick retreat in
McRae from its own precedent in Roe that the debate around abortion rights has lingered for so long, flaring up with every new federal and state limit and every lawsuit challenging them. In short, it is largely because of McRae that Roe is no longer a reality for so many women and, frankly, hasn't been for years," Adams and Arons wrote in an op-ed piece for Ms. magazine's blog.
T here are nine million women of reproductive age who are currently enrolled in Medicaid, and seven million others may qualify for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. According to Adams and Arons, an estimated one out of every three poor women carry a pregnancy to term because they do not have money to pay for an abortion. And a recent study showed that a woman who cannot obtain a desired a bortion is three times more likely to fall into poverty within two years, creating a vicious cycle where women cannot escape from their financial situation.
"What these women know all too well, but the slim majority of the McRae court apparently did not, is that the constitutional right to an abortion means little if a woman lacks the resources to access care," Adams and Arons continued in the op-ed, supporting their latest journal article.
The authors will present their work at the National Network of Abortion Funds Summit in June and at the Law Students for Reproductive Justice Leadership Institute in July.
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Berkeley Law 3L Eliza Duggan (pictured at left with fellow CRRJ Student Researcher, Kate Meyer) has been named the third-place winner of the tenth annual Sarah Weddington Writing Prize for New Student Scholarship in Reproductive Rights Law, co-sponsored by Law Students for Reproductive Justice and the Center for Reproductive Rights. Eliza's award-winning paper was written in conjunction with Professor Melissa Murray's Fall 2014 Regulating Sex and Sexuality seminar. 
