A year after the Supreme Court ruling overturning the federal right to abortion, the procedure has been banned or severely restricted in nearly half of the United States.
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority decision, issued June 24, 2022, ended 49 years of federal abortion rights, guaranteed in 1973 in Roe v. Waden.
Now, in at least 14 states virtually every abortions are prohibited: Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. In most of these states, there are no exceptions for incest or rape cases.
In six other states, access to abortion is limited: in Georgia the procedure is only possible up to six weeks and in Nebraska up to twelve weeks. Arizona, Florida, Utah, and North Carolina have 15-week limits.
In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a ban from six weeks pregnant, but the new law is under review by the state Supreme Court.
In five states — Indiana, Montana, Ohio, South Carolina and Wyoming — legislatures have tried to ban abortion outright, but legal challenges continue to be fought in court. If, as expected, these bans are passed, the country will be divided in two: 25 states ban and restrict abortion and 25 states where it remains legal.
But during the year following the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, dozens of states acted in the opposite direction.
In 20 states, from California, Nevada and Hawaii to Michigan, Colorado and Pennsylvania, access to abortion has been enshrined in state constitutions or new protections have been provided in local laws. In several cases, this protection was decided by majority vote of voters, who were called to the polls in November 2022 for the midterm elections.
In the other five states — Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, New Hampshire and Virginia — abortion has remained legal without additional action since the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Waad on June 24, 2022.
This week, First Lady Jill Biden celebrated a year since the decision in a session in the Blue Room of the White House, where she gave a negative view of the situation.
“The Dobbs decision took away women’s constitutional rights, their ability to make their own health decisions,” the First Lady said. The bans that went into effect, he said, have consequences that go beyond the right to this choice.
“There are women who don’t have access to drugs that treat arthritis and cancer, even if they’re not pregnant,” said Jill Biden.
“Rape and incest survivors are forced to travel to other states for care,” he continued. “Doctors have stopped providing what they think is good care for patients because they don’t know which procedures are legal.”
On the Republican side, twenty senators led by Marco Rubio (Florida) introduced a memorial resolution in the Senate for the first anniversary of the decision, expressing a “commitment” to pass legislation protecting embryos.
“This was a victory for the unborn and for millions of Americans who long for the day when all human life is protected by law,” said Senator Rubio.
“As we celebrate this anniversary, I want to reaffirm my commitment to protecting the unborn and supporting families. There are still many states where abortion is legal and we must continue to work to protect life across the country,” he stressed .
Source: DN
