On Friday 24th June, the US Supreme Court announced it had voted 6-3 in favour of overruling the 1973 landmark case of ‘Roe v Wade’, which granted women in America the right to choose to terminate a pregnancy.
Whilst the decision itself does not necessarily ‘ban’ abortion, instead returning the right for individual states to dictate abortion rights, 26 states are expected to instate laws which will enforce extreme abortion restrictions or outlaw it entirely.
13 states, such as Tennessee and Missouri, have ‘trigger laws’ in place, which will quickly ban abortion following the decision, some immediately and some within 30 days.
One other state with a trigger law to outright ban abortion is Texas, who have controversially been limiting access for some time now, such as through the ‘Texas Heartbeat Act’, banning abortions from when cardiac activity is detected, allowing private individuals to sue anyone who “aids or abets the performance or inducement of an abortion”, and requiring clinics to give factually incorrect medical pamphlets that discouraged the practice.
9 states have bans already in place which pre-date Roe v Wade, which will come back into effect immediately, or once a specific ban is chosen in cases there are multiple, such as Wisconsin. However, one state with a ban pre-dating Roe v Wade that is seeking to allow abortion in the courts is Michigan.
Contrarily, only 16 states and the District of Columbia have laws which protect the right to access abortion, leaving 12 other states to determine their stance and either protect or ban the practice.
The decision is overwhelmingly against the public opinion, as a poll by analytics organisation ‘Gallup’ found that 85% of Americans believe that abortion should be legal in most or all cases, a far cry from the six Supreme Court Justices who voted to overturn the case.
Current President Joe Biden called it a ‘sad day’ and used the opportunity to urge the American people to elect pro-abortion officials in the upcoming midterm elections. Elsewhere, Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke on the decision as being ‘a big step backwards’, aligning views with fellow world leaders such as Trudeau and Macron.
Many celebrities such as Taylor Swift, Phoebe Bridgers, and Adam Scott have come and spoke publicly against the Supreme Court’s decision, and former First Lady Michelle Obama called it ‘heartbreaking’, whilst President Bill Clinton described it as being ‘wrong for what it means for the future of [the] country’.
On the other side of the spectrum, controversial right-wing figures like Ben Shapiro and Steven Crowder came out in celebration of the reversal, with the former calling it ‘a victory for all human beings’. Son of former President Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr, took credit on behalf of his father, who appointed three of the judges that voted to overturn.
In order for widespread change to re-gain the right to abortion across the nation, a bill would require a 2/3 majority in the Senate, which is thought to be impossible, with either party holding 50 seats, and one democratic senator consistently crossing party lines to vote against the practice.
It must be said that in criminalising abortion, which when properly performed is thought to be safer than childbirth, the medical practice does not suddenly cease to take place, it just instead becomes more difficult to access, and increases the risk brought upon those who require them.
This is backed by a study from the Guttmacher Institute, who found that the abortion rate is only changed from 37 to 34 per 1,000 people between countries that have safe access and those which do not.
Those who are unable to afford to travel to access abortion in states which protect the right, such as New York and California, will instead turn to self-induced and dangerous abortion practices in order to end their pregnancies, posing a huge risk to the health of some 58% of America’s female population of reproductive age, who live in states expected to ban safe access.
The risk is also expected to disproportionately rise for those in lower classes, and in areas with a higher population of POC, meaning there are both classist and racist elements within the issue also.
As of right now, it is currently thought that 25,000,000 unsafe abortions take place across the globe each year, a number which can only be expected to rise as American states bans take effect.
There are some organisations supporting their workers during this difficult period such as Amazon, Meta, and Disney, who are offering to reimburse workers travel and healthcare in cases where they need to seek their abortions in other states.
For those in the UK who wish to help support and do what they can at this difficult time, the BPAS has a petition calling for the Government to officially condemn the overturning, whilst financial support can be offered to groups such as the National Network of Abortion Funds.
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