Roe v. Wade just marked its 42nd anniversary. The famous court case was a landmark decision made by the U.S. Supreme Court on abortion.

The court found that the right to privacy, which is part the due process clause of the 14th Amendment, included a woman’s right to have an abortion.

So the United States must have come pretty far since 1973, right?

Wrong.

From 1982, just nine years after the Roe v. Wade opinion, to 2005 the number of abortion providers decreased 38 percent.

Currently, there are three places in Chico where a woman can receive a legal abortion.

There are 127 abortion clinics in all of California.

However, there are only seven in Texas, two in Idaho and one in Kansas, North Dakota and South Dakota.

This means that some women have to travel upwards of 600 miles to obtain a legal abortion.

This also means that Chico, which is about 33.1 square miles, has the same number of abortion clinics as Kansas, North Dakota and South Dakota combined, which together span about 230,223 square miles.

But how do these states get away with limiting a woman’s access to an abortion when it is a constitutional right?

The states have passed and enforced anti-abortion bills that have closed dozens of clinics in each state.

These bills require doctors who provide abortions to have admitting privileges to hospitals, which is nearly impossible to get because the hospitals are religious entities, have standards regarding the number of patients seen by doctors per year or are unwilling to get involved in the politics surrounding abortion.

During the past several years, pro-life advocates have spent millions of dollars to defend strict anti-abortion laws.

What a great use of resources.

Normally, legal abortion procedures are safe and noninvasive.

However, women are now forced to revert back to unsafe and illegal abortion methods.

Not to mention the victims of rape and incest who are now unable to gain access to a safe and healthy legal abortion because of their socioeconomic status.

Anti-abortion laws are an infringement of a woman’s right to choose and exercise control of her own body.

Whether a person is pro-life or pro-choice, abortions will happen, and will continue happening, no matter the legality.

It is the responsibility of students to care and fight for women’s rights everywhere.

Just because Chico is not being targeted doesn’t mean it’s not happening elsewhere.