Allegra Vera
On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States released its official opinion, where the justices voted 6-3 to overturn Roe v. Wade, a ruling that had protected the legality of abortion for almost 50 years.
This case started back in 1969, when Pro-Choice America was founded to revoke the restrictions on abortion and expand its access. A few years later, the Supreme Court legalized abortion across the nation. According to History.com, “On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court, in a 7-2 decision, struck down the Texas law banning abortion, effectively legalizing the procedure nationwide.” Justice Harry Blackmun, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, declared that a woman’s right to an abortion was implicit in the right to privacy protected under the 14th Amendment.
Since then, many states have added restrictions that weaken abortion rights; nonetheless, Americans’ opinions regarding the right to an abortion remain divided throughout the whole country. However, as of September 9th 2022, abortion has been completely banned in at least 12 US states, while in other states the procedure is banned after a certain amount of weeks. It is very likely that abortions will become illegal in about half the states, the most conservative ones. As the New York Times states, “Individual states will decide whether and when abortions will be legal. Many states will continue to allow them, and some have even begun making provisions to help serve women who live in states that are likely to restrict abortion.”
Without the Roe v. Wade ruling, abortion numbers have seen to be decreasing. In September, Texas banned abortions after fetal cardiac activity is detected and abortions at clinics decreased by half. But women seeking abortions were able to obtain pills from neighboring states, therefore abortions in Texas only declined by 10%. It is expected for abortion numbers to reduce as more time passes, since women will have to travel further and more states will continue to ban abortion.
Bibliography:
Sidik, Saima May. “The Effects of Overturning Roe v. Wade in Seven Simple Charts.” Nature, vol. 608, no. 7922, 10 Aug. 2022, pp. 254–257, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02139-3#:~:text=The%20average%20travel%20distance%20for,protected%20the%20legality%20of%20abortion. Accessed 9 Sept. 2022.
History.com Editors. “Roe v. Wade.” HISTORY, HISTORY, 27 Mar. 2018, https://www.history.com/topics/womens-rights/roe-v-wade Accessed 9 Sept. 2022.
“What Does the End of Roe Mean? Key Questions and Answers.” The New York Times, 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/06/20/upshot/abortion-united-states-roe-wade.html. Accessed 12 Oct. 2022.
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