Roe V. Wade overruled

On June 24 of 2022, the Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade was overturned, ending nearly 50 years of federal protection for abortion rights and access in the United States. That summer, demonstrations erupted across the country in protest of the new ruling (Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization). This report delve into the aftermath of this historic ruling and will investigate its impact on the American population. 

In 1973, the US Supreme Court, the most powerful court in the country, ruled that abortion and access to abortion should be protected under the US Constitution. That is to say, the court ruled that the US Constitution protected abortion and access to abortion. In the case, Jane Roe (a pseudonym for the plaintiff) filed a lawsuit against Henry Wade, a district attorney from Dallas Country, Texas. Roe asserted that the Texas abortion law, which only allowed abortion in cases of medical necessity, was vague and unconstitutional, threatening Roe’s constitutional right to privacy. The court, as stated above, eventually ruled with Roe, thus enshrining abortion access under constitutional law. 

For this reportage, I spoke with Lara, a 23-year-old American woman from the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Lara, a student, provided her opinion of and experience with a post-Dobbs v. Jackson United States. 

On 24 June 2022, Lara remembers exactly where she was. “Funny enough, I actually spent most of that day at a local abortion clinic. I went with my cousin as moral support, she was scheduled to get an abortion that day.” Luckily for Lara’s cousin, abortion access is protected under the constitution of her state, meaning that the Dobbs case had no impact on her cousin’s ability to get an abortion. “That’s the part that’s so deeply unfair, isn’t it? I mean, depending on your state, you have different rights”. 

The Dobbs case doesn’t ban abortion in the US, however, it ends federal protection of abortion access. This means that as of 24 June 2022, access to abortion is now dependent on the law of each state. Abortion is now illegal in 13 states, and is banned at 6 weeks of pregnancy in  the state of Georgia. (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/us/abortion-laws-roe-v-wade.html) 

When asked her opinion on this fact, Lara thought for a few moments before responding. “The thing is, the states where it’s illegal are poorer states.” I asked Lara what she meant by this. “Well, I mean think about it. If abortion is illegal in your state, your only option is to travel to another state to access abortion healthcare. If you’re poor though, travelling to another state may be too expensive. You’d essentially be forced to go through with the pregnancy.” According to Lara, that’s the purpose of this ruling. “I mean that’s the whole point. The government wants to increase the birth rate”. 

Lara also sees a racial aspect to this ruling. “We have a seriously right-wing Supreme Court at the moment. Five of the nine justices are right-wing. And the right-wing, even if it doesn’t look like it, is losing support”. I asked Lara to clarify what she meant by this, and how this applied to abortion access. “Well, Gen Z and millennials are more left-wing than previous generations. And then with regard to abortion access, who do you think votes for the conservative party? It tends to be poor southern whites. This ruling specifically affects poor southern whites, and it’s going to be used to raise the white southern birth rate”. 

I asked Lara what she thinks this means for the future. Again, she took a moment to reflect. “I think this means there will be at least some level of increase in the conservative voter base. And I think that’s the whole point. The right-wing has been having it’s last gasp, and the conservatives are trying to save themselves”.