Amid high-profile coverage of elections in Texas, Florida, Georgia and other states, several states put referendums on the ballot that would radically change abortion laws. These laws remain technically unconstitutional, acting instead as “trigger” laws. If the Supreme Court reverses Roe vs. Wade or otherwise dramatically scales back abortion laws, the laws would immediately go into effect.
These technically unconstitutional trigger laws could also give rise to litigation that ultimately upends Roe.
Alabama’s Fetal Personhood Amendment
Voters Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a fetal personhood Constitutional amendment that had already passed the Alabama House and Senate. By a margin of 59-41, voters agreed that fetuses—dubbed “unborn children” in the amendment—deserve the same rights as living, breathing humans.
Alabama abortion clinics are, under the legislation, killing a person with a right to life. Though unenforceable under current precedent, fetal personhood amendments could eventually be used to prosecute women who seek abortions or doctors who provide them.
West Virginia’s ‘No Constitutional Right to Abortion’ Amendment
Roe vs. Wade made abortion a Constitutional right flowing from the right to privacy. An Amendment passed Tuesday in West Virginia disputes the idea that abortion is a right. The law, which touts itself as “protection of innocent life,” is a Constitutional amendment that asserts nothing in the stats Constitution “secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of abortion.”
It would make abortion rights significantly easier to immediately reverse if the Supreme Court scales back pro-choice precedent.
The Republican Push to Defy the Will of the People
Democrats gained 7 gubernatorial seats Tuesday night. States that previously were Republican strongholds, such as Georgia and Texas, saw strong progressive candidates put up challenges to presumed shoo-in Republicans. A record number of women and minorities were elected to the House, even as Republicans continued to offer almost nothing but white male candidates.
Americans overwhelmingly favor legal abortion, and almost none think that abortion should be banned for rape victims or to save the life of the woman. Yet Republicans continue to push to defy the will of the people. A party that is overwhelmingly white, male, and old—and therefore remarkably unaffected by reproductive health—continues to try to control women’s bodies.
It’s anti-democratic. And it’s just one more reason the push for change must not end with this election, or with 2020. Republicans are playing a long game. They are counting on progressives demoralization and distraction. Don’t give it to them. The fight is long, but it’s worth having.