Supreme Court overturns Roe, upends 50 years of abortion rights: 5 essential reads on what happens next

Matt Williams, The Conversation

The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion had been indicated via a leaked draft opinion some weeks ago, but that doesn’t diminish the impact it will have.

The ruling handed down by the Supreme Court on June 24, 2022, upends 50 years of reproductive rights in the U.S. but comes after a prolonged period in which those rights have been eroded at the state level.

It will have far-reaching implications for the social and political future of the states as well as for millions of American women. Here are five articles to help explain the importance of this decision and what to expect next.

1. The long history of debating abortion in the US

Despite the magnitude of this ruling, it is unlikely to end the debate on abortion. Indeed, as Treva B. Lindsey at The Ohio State University writes, the battle over the right to abortion predates 1973’s Roe v. Wade ruling by more than a century.

She writes that in the early 1800s, “pre-quickening abortions” – those performed before a pregnant person feels fetal movement – were fairly common, and even advertised. But in the mid- to late 19th century, states began to pass laws banning abortion. Those bans were motivated, at first, by concerns over the high risk of injury or death to women who got an abortion.

But there was also a racist reason.

“A spike in fears about new immigrants and newly emancipated Black people reproducing at higher rates than the white population also prompted more opposition to legal abortion,” Lindsey writes. By the beginning of the 20th century, abortion was illegal in every state. But the women’s liberation movement and sexual revolution of the 1960s sparked renewed discussion about reproductive rights. Some states legalized abortion under specific circumstances. Then in 1973 came the Roe ruling.

2. 50 states, 50 different abortion laws

That long history of the states deciding whether to ban or legalize abortion is set to resume again after 50 years of women in the U.S. having a constitutional right to abortion guaranteed under Roe. Thirteen states, including Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, have so-called “trigger laws” that aim to restrict abortion as soon as Roe was overturned. But in others, the future of abortion rights is less clear and could take some time to work out.

Katherine Drabiak at the University of South Florida surveyed state abortion laws for The Conversation. With Roe now overturned, it appears that 20 states will ban or restrict abortions, while 20 states and the District of Columbia will protect – or even expand – a person’s ability to get a safe abortion. This leaves 10 states in which the picture is less clear. Juneteenth celebrates just one of the United States’ 20 emancipation days – and the history of how emancipated people were kept unfree needs to be remembered, too This July 4, Love America … in Spite of Everything