Over the past few weeks, Americans have come to understand just how deeply Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that established women’s rights to control their reproductive health care, is ingrained in the nation’s legal foundation. The leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion has put the nation on notice that federal protections for abortion could soon vanish, and triggered a wave of betrayal and anger from women who thought — despite more than a decade of attacks — that abortion would remain safe, legal and accessible. These women are Democrats and Republicans, non-partisans and those who have never voted — until now.
The impact of this potentially seismic shift reaches far beyond women of childbearing age. Attention focused immediately on court decisions that are part of Roe’s lineage. Its precursors include decisions protecting access to birth control and interracial marriage. Its descendants — cases which directly cited Roe — include safeguards for parents who home-school their children and same-sex couples who want to marry.
These landmark court decisions share a foundation that draws on several sections of the Constitution to create a federal safeguard against government intrusion into private lives. It is a right that Justice Samuel Alito — the author of the leaked draft — insists never existed.
Yet he also tries to insist that this case won’t affect those other rights. That’s an act of pure deceit: Alito cannot pretend his words will lose their meaning outside of this narrow context.
It will start with the women in the 13 states that now have full abortion bans on the books. That list includes one state — Wyoming — that rushed to pass an abortion ban after Alito’s opinion was leaked. A review by the Guttmacher Institute, which monitors reproductive rights, predicts that 13 others could quickly follow suit — that number includes Florida, where access to abortion is also protected by the state constitution’s explicit right to privacy.
The final result is likely to be a patchwork of prohibitions that will fall heaviest on women who can’t afford to travel to states where abortion is still legal. The next wave of restrictions will probably target the ability of women to leave an abortion-ban state to get the procedure in a safe-haven state; Texas passed the nation’s first travel ban last year.
And this is how the spread begins: First, the right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, even when it’s the result of rape or incest, even when it would impact the economic safety of other children in the family or put a woman’s health at risk.
Then, the right to travel freely between states.
And then, birth control.
This is where the ugliest motives of this debate come to light. If this were really about protecting innocent lives, anti-abortion activists would be demanding free, effective, easy-to-access contraception.
Instead, they’re trying to drag laws back even further than 1973 — back to the 1920s, when it was illegal to send contraceptives or even information about birth control through the mail.
Some see this threat as overblown. Those people are not paying attention.
The current campaign against contraception is — for now — mostly subtle, undermining insurance coverage, creating “conscience” loopholes that allow pharmacists and doctors to refuse to dispense birth control and putting protection out of reach for some minors.
But if Roe falls, those attacks will become more blatant and reliant on deceit, with reproductive rights opponents claiming that several of the most effective forms of contraception — IUDs, so-called morning-after pills and hormonal implants — cause abortions rather than preventing conception.
In Florida last year, anti-abortion rights groups pushed that falsehood in convincing Gov. Ron DeSantis to veto funding for long-term contraceptive implants and IUDs. That money is back in the budget for the coming fiscal year, and we’re sure DeSantis is facing veto pressure again. Also last year, Missouri lawmakers attempted to block Medicaid coverage for similar forms of contraception.
It’s a short step from funding restrictions to outright bans, and some anti-abortion rights activists are already there: National Right to Life, Students for Life and religious groups have advocated excluding contraception from all insurance coverage, or banning Plan B and IUDs. Even if they don’t win bans immediately, every restriction will put effective birth control further out of reach for the women who can least afford the burdens of forced childbearing.
Here’s the good news: Women aren’t going to quietly accept attempts to seize control of their bodies. And they’re getting louder. A recent rally in downtown Orlando drew hundreds of women, waving clever (if sometimes raunchy) signs and shouting their support for reproductive rights.
Speaker after speaker told these women where to take their rage and anger: To the polls in November, voting out the politicians who want to take away abortion rights.
Some of the women were young adults when Roe v. Wade was announced, and thought they’d never face this fight again. They stood next to the younger generations of women who have never lived in a world without access to safe, legal abortion. Also on hand: Supporters of LGBTQ+ rights, who know they’re next in the crosshairs.
The leaked decision is not yet law; abortion is still legal. But even if Roe survives this current onslaught (which some experts are starting to predict) women should remember the lessons of this spring. Freedom — even the freedom to control their own bodies — can never be taken for granted.
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