
HEALTHCARE ACCESS. "My body, my choice!" resonates from protesters on
the front lawn of the Guam Congress Building in Hagatña during a protest
voicing their concerns against the Guam Heartbeat Act of 2022 on April
27, 2022. Women from the remote U.S. territories of Guam and the
Northern Mariana Islands will likely have to travel farther than other
Americans to terminate a pregnancy if the Supreme Court overturns a
precedent that established a national right to abortion in the United
States. (Rick Cruz/The Pacific Daily via AP, File)
From The Asian Reporter, V32, #6 (June 6, 2022), pages 10 &
11.
On remote U.S. territories, abortion hurdles mount
without Roe
By Audrey McAvoy
The Associated Press
HONOLULU — Women from the remote U.S. territories of Guam and the
Northern Mariana Islands will likely have to travel farther than other
Americans to terminate a pregnancy if the Supreme Court overturns a
precedent that established a national right to abortion in the United
States.
Hawai‘i is the closest U.S. state where abortion is legal under local
law. Even so, Honolulu is 3,800 miles away — about 50% farther than
Boston is from Los Angeles.
"For a lot of people who are seeking abortion care, it might as well
be on the moon," said Vanessa L. Williams, an attorney who is active
with the group Guam People for Choice.
It’s already difficult to get an abortion in Guam, a small, heavily
Catholic island of about 170,000 people south of Japan.
The last physician who performed surgical abortions there retired in
2018. Two Guam-licensed doctors who live in Hawai‘i see patients
virtually and mail them pills for medication abortions. But this
alternative is available only until 11 weeks gestation.
Now there’s a possibility even this limited telehealth option will
disappear.
A recently leaked draft opinion indicated the Supreme Court could
overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision and allow individual states
to ban abortion. About half of them would likely do so, abortion rights
advocates say. Oklahoma got a head start in late May when its governor
signed a measure prohibiting all abortions with few exceptions.
All three U.S. territories in the Pacific — Guam, the Northern
Mariana Islands, and American Samoa — also have the potential to adopt
prohibitions, according to a 2019 report by the Center for Reproductive
Rights. None have legal protections for abortion, and they could revive
old abortion bans or enact new ones, the report said.
Travelling to the nearest states where abortion is allowed — Hawai‘i
or the U.S. west coast — would be prohibitive for many women.
A nonstop flight from Guam to Honolulu takes nearly eight hours. Only
one commercial airline flies the route. A recent online search showed
the cheapest tickets going for $1,500 roundtrip in late May.
Williams said many Guam residents need time off work, a hotel room,
and a rental car to travel for an abortion, adding more costs.
Hawai‘i legalized abortion in 1970, three years before Roe. The state
today allows abortion until a fetus would be viable outside the womb.
After that, it’s legal if a patient’s life or health is in danger.
Flying to a country in Asia that allows abortion would be quicker,
but several reproductive rights advocates on Guam said they hadn’t heard
of anyone doing that. For one, it would require a passport, which many
don’t have, said Kiana Yabut of the group Famalao’an Rights.
Without Roe, Guam could revert to an abortion ban dating to 1990. The
9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the law unconstitutional in
1992, but it has never been repealed.
James Canto, Guam deputy attorney general, agreed under questioning
by a Guam senator in May that existing abortion laws in various states
and territories would "be the law of the land" if Roe was overturned.
But Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, deputy director of the reproductive freedom
project at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the 9th Circuit
permanently enjoined the 1990 law, meaning Guam’s attorney general would
have to ask the local U.S. District Court to lift an injunction to begin
enforcing it.
The 32-year-old statute made it a felony for a doctor to perform the
procedure except to save a woman’s life or prevent grave danger to her
health, as certified by two independent physicians, or to end an ectopic
pregnancy, which is a dangerous abnormal pregnancy that develops outside
the uterus.
It made it a misdemeanor for a woman to have an abortion, or for
anyone to ask or advise her to have one.
The 21-member unicameral legislature unanimously approved the ban
after then-Archbishop Anthony Apuron threatened in a television
interview to excommunicate any Catholic senator who voted against it.
All but one of the senators was Catholic, but most senators said they
were unaware of the threat.
Guam’s legislature has been considering additional measures to
restrict abortion. It held hearings in May on a bill modelled after a
new Texas law that bans abortion once cardiac activity is detected,
usually around six weeks. The Texas law, which has withstood legal
challenges so far, leaves enforcement up to private citizens through
lawsuits instead of criminal prosecutions.
Peter Srgo, a Guam attorney who drafted the measure, said enacting it
would remove speculation about whether Guam would prohibit abortions if
Roe is overturned.
"So take your pick. What do you want? Because for me, either way, I
win. Either way, the people win. Either way, the pro-life movement is
going to have a major victory no matter what," he said.
The possibility that abortion may become less accessible on Guam has
spurred some nonprofits to come together to increase their support for
pregnant women in need, said Mona McManus, executive director of the
island’s Safe Haven Pregnancy Center.
Her organization, which opposes abortion, provides free pregnancy
tests, prenatal and parenting classes, and information on adoption and
abortion. It recently started a "wraparound service group" with other
nonprofits that can help secure housing, foster care for teen mothers,
adoption, and other services.
Jayne Flores, director of the Bureau of Women’s Affairs, a Guam
government agency, believes residents would still have access to
medication abortions from off-island if Roe is overturned. But she
wonders whether the legislature might outlaw that too.
"At what point do you start looking in people’s mail?" she said.
In the Atlantic, lawmakers in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico are
considering legislation that would prohibit abortions starting at 22
weeks, or when a doctor determines that a fetus is viable, with the sole
exception being if a woman’s life is in danger. That is roughly in line
with most U.S. state laws, though more limiting than Puerto Rico’s
current status, which sets no term limit.
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