New Voices
A patient at Whole Woman's Health in Austin, Texas. The clinic is currently crowdfunding a move to a new location in New Mexico.
On May 3, the abortion landscape in the United States changed forever. A leaked draft of a majority opinion written by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was obtained by Politico, indicating that the Court would rule in favor of Mississippi’s ban on abortion in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Less than two months later, on June 24, the Court made public its decision. The ruling effectively overturned decades of precedent in the Roe v. Wade (1973) and the Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) cases.
Back in May, in anticipation of the Court’s ruling, it was projected that some 300,000 people would have to travel long distances to access abortion care and that about 30 percent of them would need help with logistics and covering expenses. Bloomberg, using data from the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights, also predicted that a typical patient would have to travel an average of 276 miles, each way, to the nearest clinic where abortion remained legal—not their preferred clinic, but simply the nearest. This distance is six times farther than the amount of travel required before the Dobbs decision.
Since June, one in three American women—about 20.9 million—between the ages of fifteen and forty-four have lost abortion access in the state where they live, according to The Washington Post. Only 41 percent of women in the United States currently live in a state where abortion is legal and likely to remain protected. The effects of this are already well known. Those who are denied abortion have worse mental health problems, such as anxiety and low self-esteem, than those who can access care. Because 60 percent of people who have abortions are already parents, the economic stress of being unable to obtain an abortion is often devastating. Additionally, abortion bans that have gone into effect at the state level are affecting those already most marginalized, namely people of color and those struggling to make ends meet.
Worse, we are now seeing a dramatic increase in the criminalization of abortion, pregnancy, and miscarriage. Those who have miscarriages or are suspected of inducing an abortion, or helping others have an abortion, will face extreme scrutiny under the law in several states where abortion bans are in effect. As we’ve seen in the past, we can expect that the justice system will disproportionately punish women of color, immigrants, and other marginalized groups.
Just one month after the Dobbs ruling was announced, at least forty-three abortion clinics had closed their doors, mostly in the South and the Midwest, including Mississippi’s legendary Pink House, the clinic at the center of Dobbs. Clinic workers across these regions, including abortion providers, nurses, and administrative and support staff, have lost their jobs while demand for abortion increases in states with legal abortion. ReproJobs, an online database of abortion-related job postings, has seen an increase in the number of available positions on its website.
Some clinics, however, have been able to move across state lines. The Red River Women’s Clinic of Fargo, North Dakota, which for more than two decades was the state’s only abortion clinic, was able to purchase a new building just across the border, in Moorhead, Minnesota. The clinic crowdfunded the move, raising more than $1 million following the announcement of North Dakota’s imminent abortion ban, which is facing a legal challenge brought by the clinic. Whole Woman’s Health, one of the largest abortion providers in Texas, is crowdfunding a move across the state line to New Mexico, to continue providing abortion care.
Many other clinics will be unable to remain open, even in a nearby state. In the South, for example, finding a neighboring state where abortion is legal is nearly impossible. Clinics that have been able to remain open face increasing threats of violence from anti-abortion extremists. A spike in abortion-related violent crime has prompted the FBI to initiate several investigations, FBI Director Christopher Wray told members of Senate Judiciary Committee in early August. It’s not hard to imagine that this trend will only increase in the coming months and years.
As of this writing, fourteen states have completely banned most abortions: Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Additionally, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, and Ohio have implemented extreme abortion bans that make it nearly impossible to access care.
And in a clear indication of what Republicans intend should they take control of Congress in November, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, introduced a bill in September that would ban abortions nationwide after fifteen weeks of pregnancy.
There have been glimmers of hope from several lower courts and judges that have blocked total bans or severe restrictions from taking effect, including in Michigan, North Dakota, South Carolina, Utah, and Wyoming.
In August, in the first state referendum on abortion since the Dobbs ruling, Kansans overwhelmingly voted against removing protections for abortion rights from the state constitution, with nearly 60 percent of voters opposing the measure. The following month, a judge in Michigan issued a permanent injunction on that state’s 1931 abortion ban, and voters will decide in November whether to adopt a state constitutional amendment that would protect the right to an abortion. Four other states will vote on similar ballot measures in November: California, Kentucky, Montana, and Vermont.
On its own, the Dobbs decision is devastating. It’s still too early to fully understand the scope of the loss, but we are already seeing the ripple effects of the Court’s decision. Anti-abortion politicians and activists are trying to outlaw anything that prevents a pregnancy from coming to term. This will undoubtedly expand to include contraception and emergency contraception. At the very least, these medications will become even harder to obtain. Similar to what happened after former President Donald Trump was elected in 2016, there has been a sharp spike in the number of people obtaining long-acting, reversible contraception, such as IUDs and implants. Interestingly, the number of requests for vasectomies has skyrocketed as well, signaling a new and profound fear of unintended pregnancies.
Another facet of reproductive health care that may soon be criminalized is in vitro fertilization. IVF is common and is used not only for those facing infertility but also by same-sex couples and single parents by choice. However, in the process of IVF, fertilized eggs often do not successfully implant. In other cases, a couple may choose to have extra fertilized eggs destroyed if they have had a child and are not looking to become pregnant again or if they cannot afford the costs of more treatment or storage. Some anti-abortion extremists believe this should be illegal, including Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
Reproductive rights aren’t the only thing at stake right now. In his concurring opinion in the Dobbs decision, Justice Clarence Thomas made it clear that any Constitutional right protected by the Fourteenth Amendment would be up for grabs. He specifically mentioned Lawrence v. Texas (2003) and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), which protect the rights to engage in same-sex intimacy and to same-sex marriage, respectively. Thomas conveniently left out Loving v. Virginia (1967), which overturned laws banning interracial marriage. It’s certainly not a reach to think that if queer marriage is overturned, interracial marriage may soon follow.
The fall of Roe is having calamitous and heartbreaking repercussions. But we also know that Roe was never the ceiling—it was a shoddy backstop that didn’t actually protect abortion, but rather the privacy of a person to choose to have an abortion. As we enter the new normal of a post-Roe America, we have the opportunity to think bigger. We have the chance to reimagine what radical access to abortion can and should look like for all people. Let’s find our new North Star and work to reach it.