“In the United States, one year after Dobbs, this right remains a crucial issue in the 2024 presidential election”

Lon 24 June 2022, by the judgment Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Dobbs says, the US Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to abortion. The iconic Roe v. 1973 Wade was shot down. From now on, it is up to the federal states to decide on this fundamental right of women to dispose of their bodies.

In post-Roe America today, fourteen states (out of fifty) have completely abolished this right and six others radically limit it, often as early as six weeks into the pregnancy. The South and Midwest have largely made it disappear. As for the “exceptions”, in the event of rape, incest or danger to the viability of the fetus or to the life of women, doctors and associations agree that they are only theoretical.

It must be understood, in fact, that with the anti-abortion laws, the gynecological health of women is threatened and many risk death for lack of treatment. The approach is profoundly gendered, since the vast majority of local decision-makers who, in the last year, have gone in the direction of banning abortion are men of the Republican Party (1,300 out of just under 1,600).

Criminalization of abortion

Candidates in the Grand Old Party primaries for the 2024 presidential election, from Donald Trump to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to former Vice President Mike Pence, are also promising to further restrict this right. Because, in the opinion of jurists specialized in the field, such as Mary Ziegler, Dobbs is not an end, but a beginning. Under the pressure of influential fanatical groups, for example, it is a question of passing a federal law that completely prohibits abortion on the national territory.

The latest episode, which is not finished because there is a high probability that it will eventually be decided by the Supreme Court within a few months, is that of the abortion pill, used for more than half of abortions and whose prescription has been facilitated in the last few years. If the country’s highest court were to revoke the marketing authorization granted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), it would go even further than Dobbs. Also, ending the FDA’s hold on the abortion pill would pave the way for banning other drugs that religious extremists or conspiracy theorists don’t like (hormones, contraceptives, vaccines, etc.).

The Republican Party has made itself hostage to an ultra-militant base, the one that votes in the primaries. Some are even ready to fight for the criminalization of abortion, as in South Carolina, where several elected officials have attempted to make it a homicide law.

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By James Brown

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