Today is the one-year anniversary of the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. Half the states, containing 25 million women, now have restrictions on abortion. (Handy map.) Fourteen states ban abortion under almost all circumstances. And everything abortion rights activists warned about is already coming to pass:
Exceptions for “life of the mother” force doctors to err on the side of waiting until the patient is near death. In Oklahoma, a woman with a life-threatening pregnancy was told to wait in the parking lot until she was “crashing.” In the states with the most restrictive laws, such as Idaho, doctors have been fleeing the state, leaving a shortage of ob/gyn care for all women.
Exceptions for rape and incest have likewise proved nearly useless in practice. Some require that the victim make an immediate police report after the assault; most rape victims don’t, and those who do aren’t always believed. Most states don’t even make a pretense of this exception; a 10-year-old rape victim had to flee Ohio and have an abortion out of state.
The Texas “bounty” law, which allows lawsuits against anyone vaguely connected with an abortion, has been weaponized in predictable ways by abusers.
Some states are trying to effectively criminalize miscarriage.
Some states are banning medication abortions.
“States’ rights” narratives are already being discarded as Republicans push for a nationwide abortion ban.
And Clarence Thomas and Marsha Blackburn, among others, have made clear that all other privacy rights are in the crosshairs, including contraception and LGBTQ rights.
Of course, abortion rights advocates haven’t been taking this passively. Blue states have been passing laws to protect abortion access, including for those coming from out of state. States that allow direct referendums have had voters consistently support abortion rights, even in red states like Kansas and Kentucky. Ohio looks to be the next battleground, while the gerrymandered Republican legislature scrambles to take the issue out of voters’ hands.
Beyond all the horror stories that make the news, there are the smaller tragedies of babies born to parents who don’t want or aren’t able to care for them.
I highly recommend Jessica Valenti’s Abortion Every Day, where she tracks legislation and activism on abortion across the country.
As always, this diary is a group effort. Thanks to mettle fatigue, Angmar, ramara, SandraLLAP, and the WOW crew for links and discussion.