Abortion law in the US

By overturning the landmark ‘Roe vs Wade’ judgment of 1973, which had made abortion a constitutional right, the Supreme Court of the United States has taken a big step backward. The court, hearing a challenge to a Mississippi state law that sought to ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, upheld the ban by a 6-3 majority. The verdict, apart from further polarising the country between the liberals and the conservatives, will have a massive impact on the lives of women in the US — near-total ban on abortion will come into effect in the states ruled by the Republican Party, either immediately or 30 days after this verdict.

Nearly 50 years ago, the ‘Roe’ judgment had struck down laws that made abortion illegal in several states in the US, allowing abortion up to the point of ‘foetal viability’— the point at which a foetus can survive outside the womb. That judgment gave women greater autonomy over their bodies, allowing them the choice to not have a child in case the circumstances changed or they had second thoughts. Over the years, various studies have found that the abortion legalisation led to a reduction in the number of girls who became teen mothers, boosted women’s education, labour force participation and income. The opposition came from the Christian Right, for whom overturning the ‘Roe’ judgment was a mission due to their belief in the sanctity of life. It’s a deeply political judgment, too — as far back as October 2016, Donald Trump, then the Republican presidential candidate, had said he’d nominate conservative judges to the Supreme Court and that would ‘automatically’ lead to the overturning of the 1973 judgment. This is exactly what has happened.

It’s obvious that the court has delivered a judgment which flies in the face of public opinion — according to the Pew Research Center, around 61% of the Americans support abortion under most conditions while 37% believe it should be illegal in the majority of the circumstances. Women’s rights activists say that the court has taken away women’s control over their bodies and their right to make a choice about something that can have a fundamental impact on their lives. They are right, because the court has delivered an ideological judgment instead of a kind and humane one.

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