Housing & Abortion Access Are Part Of The Same Conversation
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Hi there,
You probably know someone who’s had an abortion. I do. While I’ve spent much of this week heavily compartmentalizing for survival reasons, as a person with a uterus who cares about other people with uteruses, it’s impossible to separate abortion rights from pretty much anything else.
As an urban planning student, I grapple a lot with what it means to try to instigate change from within a system that feels broken, that serves the power-hoarders at the expense of the rest of us. Public input at zoning commission meetings seems like a check-and-balance against poor choices on the part of the government (looking at you, urban renewal), but in practice, it lets the loudest voices (so often older, whiter, wealthier, home own-ier) win, blocking things like more affordable housing.
Minority rule wasn’t the intention, but it seems like that’s become our reality. The GOP is our nation’s biggest NIMBY.
I want to acknowledge up front that much of the discourse around abortion gets gendered in a way that leaves out trans and non-binary people who are capable of becoming pregnant. Today’s newsletter will focus heavily on gender inequity, but please know it’s not only about women.
What does abortion have to do with housing?
People experiencing homelessness and housing instability have worse reproductive health outcomes. They also tend to have abortions later in pregnancy, which “seems to contribute to the increased frequency of abortion complications.”
Home is the center, the place from which we spring, the place that gives us the strength and stability to exist in the rest of the world. The study I shared above doesn’t surprise me – housing access and abortion access are human rights that aren’t guaranteed in America.
Most people in the U.S. who have abortions are already parents. While I’m sure their reasons vary, what’s clear is that kids are expensive, require a lot of care and energy, and deserve parents (or a parent) who want them. And also:
The Center for Reproductive Rights maintains an interactive map tool that depicts the level of abortion access available across states on a spectrum from “hostile” to “expanded access” – it’s pretty bleak. The states with “expanded access to abortion” (where the right to abortion is protected by state statutes or state constitutions, and other laws and policies have created additional access to abortion care) are:
- California, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington
According to a study from Credit Karma:
- States with the highest estimated typical home values are: Hawaii, California, Washington, Massachusetts, Colorado (in that order)
- States with the highest average monthly rent are: Hawaii, California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland (in that order)
- States with the highest cost of living are: Hawaii, California, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey (in that order)
You’ll notice lots of overlap. We live in a society with increasing wealth inequality, and it’s scary to think about the fact that living in a place that guarantees access to a safe abortion also means living in a place that’s incredibly expensive. Abortion funds can help bridge the gap, but probably aren’t a sustainable solution in the long run.
Homeownership can provide a means to build wealth and maintain a relatively stable housing cost (rising property taxes and maintenance costs aside). In fact, rates of homeownership by women have risen dramatically over the last 30 years, along with the share of women (married and single) who are heads of households, according to the Urban Institute.
This is great news in terms of greater financial stability for women, independent of men. But abortion bans are dangerous, and they threaten the gender equity gains we’ve made in recent decades – financial and otherwise.
And I think the most frustrating part about this leaked Supreme Court opinion is that most people literally don’t want Roe overturned. In an essay on the ways money in politics has brought us to this point, the Brennan Center’s Ian Vandewalker and Mira Ortegon write, “Even though a large majority of Americans favor keeping abortion legal, a vocal—and wealthy—minority is able to exert influence on policy and judicial appointments through campaign spending, leading to extreme laws like S.B. 8 and an out-of-touch Supreme Court upholding them.”
Our society’s great challenges – housing access, worker’s rights, healthcare, social and racial justice – are intertwined. Not like a tangled ball of yarn, but like a cake that’s already been baked. You literally can’t separate them because each directly impacts the other in ways that aren’t always even apparent. In the planning world, we call these wicked problems.
I think this gets at the heart of why, as an interior design influencer, it never felt like enough for me to talk about gallery walls and color palettes without speaking on housing access and affordability. I just can’t separate them.
I get to create spaces I love because of my various intersecting identities, the opportunities I’ve been afforded, and the connections I’ve made. I used to dream about having a matching bedding set when I was a kid, instead of the mismatched sheets and hand-me-down blankets in our linen closet. And now here I am, a biracial Black woman, a homeowner, a graduate student, and a person with a platform. Had I been forced to give birth to children I’m not ready for, who knows what my life would look like.
As we demand better access to housing, good jobs, reliable healthcare, and beyond, we can’t leave out abortions.
Until next week,
🧡 Dominique
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