Roe v Wade, the crucial Supreme Court precedent establishing a right to abortion in the United States, would have turned 50 on Sunday. But instead of celebrating an enduring precedent, women’s rights and reproductive justice advocates find ourselves mourning the overturning of the precedent by an unfairly stacked, right-wing Christian Supreme Court utterly out of step with the vast majority of Americans and increasingly viewed as illegitimate.
Meanwhile, Christian right activists are signaling the intention to continue their political assault on reproductive rights, changing the route of their annual ‘March for Life’ to pass by Congress, pressuring legislators to pass a nationwide abortion ban. Thankfully, the steps Congressional Republicans have taken in that direction so far have been fairly hesitant and minimal, most likely as a result of their relatively poor showing in the 2022 midterm elections.
Typically, the party that does not control the presidency makes major gains in midterms, but in 2022, the abortion issue galvanized the Democratic base – including and especially the youth demographic – to get out and vote, preventing Republicans from taking control of the Senate. As a result, even though Republicans took control of the House of Representatives, no national abortion ban will be able to get through the current Congress.
