Throngs of demonstrators carrying signs and bullhorns gathered outside the U.S. Supreme Court building on a Friday morning. A tangible tension mingled with the chants in the air.
The date was June 24, 2022, and they were moments away from witnessing history—they all but knew it.
Just weeks before, a leaked draft opinion of the high court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling had rocked the nation. A half-century of judicial precedent was about to be struck down, and with it, the federal right to abortion.
As the final opinion came down, members of the crowd erupted into shouts of joy or anger, their highest hopes or worst fears confirmed: Roe v. Wade was no more, and the states would now decide the fate of abortion in the United States.
Shifting Landscape
In the wake of the court’s decision, the move to enact new abortion legislation around the country was swift. As left-leaning states feverishly rushed to codify protections for women seeking abortions, more conservative states moved to tighten restrictions on the procedure at varying stages of pregnancy.Meanwhile, in some states, abortion laws that predated Roe were instantly triggered by the ruling’s reversal. In Wisconsin, an 1849 ban on all abortions in the state—save those to avert risk to the mother’s life—took effect. That law has since been challenged in court.
In Arizona, the state’s Court of Appeals ruled that a similar ban dating back to 1864 can coexist with a 2022 law that allows abortions through 15 weeks of pregnancy. The more recent law, the court held, should simply be viewed as an exception to the earlier ban. That ruling has been appealed to the Arizona Supreme Court.
Additional lawsuits in other states have left the legal parameters of abortion in limbo.
For instance, in Florida, a six-week abortion limit that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed in April can’t take effect until the state’s Supreme Court rules on an embattled 15-week restriction that lawmakers passed last year.
Similarly, South Carolina’s six-week limit has been temporarily blocked pending a review from the state’s Supreme Court.
The Fallout
With so much uncertainty surrounding the legality of abortion in several states, Senate Democrats described the current landscape as a “dystopian reality” for women.“One year ago, Americans lost a constitutional right for the first time in history and Republicans ripped it away,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said at a June 21 press conference at the Capitol. “Since that Dobbs decision, 14 states have passed a total ban on abortion, another six states have severely limited abortion services, and nine other states have had their abortion bans blocked in court.”
Murray added that the consequences of the court’s decision had been “devastating” for those who considered abortion to be a woman’s “fundamental right.”
“Women are heartbroken,” she said. “They’re terrified. But they are also mad, and they are determined, and they are speaking out, and so are Senate Democrats.”
Later that day, Murray led an effort to push through four bills aimed at expanding protections for women seeking abortions and reproductive health services via unanimous consent—a move that was ultimately blocked by Republicans.
But abortion advocates aren’t the only people expressing concern over the ramifications of Dobbs.
For those who oppose abortion, the overturn of Roe has largely been considered a win. But according to pro-life advocate Abby Johnson, the ruling has had its drawbacks for the pro-life movement too.
“After Roe was overturned, there was a fear that people who weren’t as involved in the pro-life movement were going to kind of throw up their hands and say, ‘Great. OK, now we don’t have to worry about abortion anymore.’ And unfortunately, it seems like that has been the case,” Johnson told The Epoch Times.
She noted that, in recent months, there has been a marked decline in volunteerism and donations to pro-life organizations, yet the fight for life has, if anything, only gotten harder.
“In a way, we’ve made the landscape a little more difficult for ourselves because, now, instead of just one battle, we have 51 battles, if you include D.C.,” she said.
And those battles aren’t only legislative.
Johnson, once a Planned Parenthood clinic director, now helps clinic workers to leave the abortion industry as the CEO and founder of the nonprofit And Then There Were None. And even though her staff works remotely, she noted that the organization has been forced to take extra precautions following recent threats to her safety.
“Since all this has happened, I have more security when I go out than I did before,” she said. Her organization has also taken measures to protect the identities of staff members.
Even so, after years of speaking out against abortion, Johnson said she had found such risks to be “par for the course.”
“Violence begets violence. And they are for violence against the most vulnerable people among us.”
By the Numbers
A decrease in the number of abortions performed in the United States over the past year may also be a result of the Dobbs ruling.That organization held that the reduction meant “grave consequences” for women unable to obtain abortions, “including increased economic insecurity, poorer physical health, and continued exposure to violence from the man involved in the pregnancy.”
But E.V. Osment, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America’s vice president of communications, shared a different perspective.
“What we have known all along is the majority of women want to keep their children,” Osment said. “They’re just hoping and looking for a way to do that.”
Many women, she noted, feel pressured by their partners and parents to abort their babies because of financial constraints. For those women, taking abortion off the table as an option could relieve that pressure.
“For us, the next move forward is to make sure that we are supporting moms and children—that we are not doing what the other side does, which is to pit the mom against the child, but we are loving and supporting them both at the same time.”
“Seventy-seven percent of voters agree with at least some abortion limits by 15 weeks,” she said. “And we also see, poll after poll, that Americans are not comfortable with and do not want late-term abortions. What they want is to have abortion limited by at least the first trimester, and what we see is 12 to 15 weeks, when science proves that the child can feel pain inside the womb.”
The survey also found that 70 percent of voters support requiring parental consent for minors seeking abortions and 76 percent support the existence of pregnancy resource centers that do not perform abortions.
Additionally, 59 percent of voters said they would support federal legislation to limit abortions beyond 15 weeks gestation.
But while the public might be on board with such a measure, whether Congress would support it remains to be seen.
Looking Ahead
The issue of abortion has been at the forefront of U.S. politics for decades, and with a presidential election just around the corner, that isn’t likely to change soon.In fact, abortion is already playing a prominent role in the presidential primaries.
On June 23, President Joe Biden secured the endorsement of abortion provider Planned Parenthood, which will likely be a feather in his cap as he looks to reclaim the Democratic nomination.
“We know, clear as day, that if anti-abortion politicians gain control of the White House, they will exploit their power toward their ultimate goal: a national abortion ban. That is why we must re-elect President Biden and Vice President Harris: people we can trust to keep rebuilding a path forward because we know the journey to rebuilding our rights will be met with challenges.”
Meanwhile, Republican candidates have begun courting the pro-life vote, touting their views and relevant accomplishments.
While speaking at the Faith and Freedom Coalition Policy Conference in Washington on June 23, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pointed to the six-week limit he recently signed as evidence that he was “promoting a culture of life” in Florida.
At the same event, former Vice President Mike Pence called upon his fellow Republican candidates to pledge their support for a national 15-week limitation on abortion—a call former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson was happy to answer.
But one candidate who has shied away from taking a specific position on federal abortion restrictions is former President Donald Trump.
During a CNN town hall in May, he was asked whether he would support such a measure. Hedging, he replied that he would “negotiate so that people are happy.”
The former president also noted that he appointed three of the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“You wouldn’t even be having a discussion if you weren’t able to get rid of Roe v. Wade,” he said.
But while Roe is gone, for voters on the left and right, the issue of abortion is clearly not forgotten.
