High court’s abortion decision is both scorned, praised
Activists and politicians marked the one-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned a nationwide right to abortion with a range of reactions that vary from praise to protests.
Advocates on both sides marched at rallies Saturday in Washington and across the country to call attention to the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling on June 24, 2022, which upended the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
“I’m absolutely livid that people think that they can interfere with medical decisions between a woman and her doctor,” said Lynn Rust, of Silver Springs, Md., at a Women’s March rally in Washington.
Anti-abortion groups take the opposite view: “We celebrate one year of momentous progress in the fight for life,” Susan B. Anthony Pro Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement.
Most Republican-controlled states have imposed bans, including 14 where laws in effect now block most abortions in every stage of pregnancy, with varying exceptions for the life and health of the women and for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.
Most Democrat-led states have taken steps to protect abortion access, particularly by seeking to protect doctors and others from prosecution for violating other states’ abortion bans.
Judges are still weighing whether the bans and restrictions in several states comply with state constitutions.
As soon as this fall, more voters could decide directly on abortion-related policies; last year, they sided with abortion rights in all six states with measures on the ballot. And the issue will be on the ballot in elections this year and next.
Vice President Kamala Harris spoke about the impact of the Dobbs ruling in Charlotte, N.C.
“We knew this decision would create a health care crisis in America,” she said, pointing to women who were initially denied abortion access even during miscarriages because hospitals were concerned about legal fallout. The laws restricting abortion “in design and effect have created chaos, confusion and fear,” Ms. Harris said.
Public opinion polls have consistently found that the majority oppose the most restrictive bans but also oppose unchecked abortion access at all stages of pregnancy.
President Joe Biden has pushed for a national law to reinstate abortion access. Republicans have called for a national ban. Last week, former Vice President Mike Pence, who is seeking the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, called for his party’s presidential candidates to join him in backing a ban after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
But with Democrats controlling the presidency and U.S. Senate and Republicans holding the House, no federal change is imminent.
Nikki Haley, another GOP presidential candidate and former ambassador to the United Nations, said she backs a federal ban but it doesn’t have enough support to advance. Speaking at the Faith and Freedom Conference in Washington, Ms. Haley said both parities should instead look to goals such as limiting abortion later in pregnancy. Only a halfdozen states allow abortion at any point in pregnancy, and abortions after 21 weeks or so are rare.
“We need to make sure that our country stops demonizing this issue and we humanize this issue,” Ms. Haley said. “This is personal for everyone.”
In states with the deepest bans, the number of abortions has plummeted to nearly zero. There have been more abortions in states where access has been maintained — especially those closest to those with bans, as women travel for care they used to be able to get closer to home.
“I can’t tell you how many people arrive at the clinic utterly exhausted after driving all night from Georgia, Tennessee, Louisiana,” said Dr. Amy Bryant, a physician who provides abortions at a clinic in Chapel Hill, N.C.
And while abortions have continued, advocates say there’s an equity problem: Black women and lower-income women especially, they say, are those who were expected to lose access.
“Seeing how it impacts every one in the country, but especially the people who are already at a disadvantage and don’t have that access is really scary,” Larkin O’Gorman, a Washington resident, said at the Women’s March event.