In the year since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, some of the results of the decision have not been surprising: More than a dozen Republican-led states have moved to ban most abortions, and dozens of abortion clinics have closed. However, there have also been unexpected legal and political changes that have left Americans on both sides of the issue struggling to adjust. Here are five major changes detailed in The New York Times’ coverage of the first anniversary of the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which ended the constitutional right to abortion after nearly 50 years.
Some Republicans have problems with the issue.
The Dobbs decision has reshaped the national political landscape in two seemingly contradictory ways. It has turned abortion rights into a significant electoral force for Democrats and often to a clear disadvantage for Republicans. And yet, Republican-dominated states have moved quickly to limit or ban abortion access.
Those competing forces have left some Republican lawmakers, strategists and activists scrambling to find consensus on abortion policy and grappling with how to energize the party’s base on the issue without alienating undecided voters.
Abortion politics has become particularly tense for Republicans in competitive districts, as well as some presidential candidates, whose restless attempts to strike a balance on the issue have highlighted tensions festering in the party in the post-abortion era. gnaws.
A new poll shows more support for abortion rights.
Polls over the past year have detected a remarkable shift in public opinion after decades of relative stagnation: For the first time, a majority of Americans say abortion is “morally acceptable.” TO most of them now believe abortion laws are too strict. And for the first time in two decades, Americans are significantly more likely to identify as “pro-choice” than “pro-life.”
Rising support for abortion rights could affect the 2024 presidential election. More voters than ever they say will vote alone for a candidate who shares his views on abortion. But Republicans and those who identify as “pro-life” are less motivated by the issue than Democrats and those who identify as “pro-choice,” who are much more concerned about abortion rights.
“This is a paradigm shift,” said Lydia Saad, director of US social research for Gallup, the polling firm. “There is still a lot of ambivalence, not a lot of all-or-nothing people. But there is much more support for abortion rights than there used to be, and that seems to be here to stay.”
Clinics are closing, and not just in states that ban abortion.
In the year since Roe v. Wade, at least 61 clinics, Planned Parenthood facilities and doctors’ offices have stopped offering abortions. While most were in states that banned abortion entirely, others closed due to the uncertain legality of abortion in their states. The closures forced many women to travel to states like Illinois and North Carolina, where abortion is legal. Clinics in those states have experienced an increase in demand.
About half of the providers who stopped providing abortions have switched to offering other services, such as birth control and prenatal care. And at least a dozen providers have opened new clinics in states that don’t ban abortion.
Throughout the country, the number of average monthly abortions it fell about 3 percent in the nine months after the Supreme Court ruling.
Religious freedom arguments are fueling the fight against abortion bans.
For years, conservative Christians have cited the principle of religious liberty to secure legal victories in battles over issues like birth control insurance mandates and coronavirus pandemic restrictions. Now, abortion rights advocates are invoking the same principle to fight state abortion bans.
Since Roe v. Wade, members of the clergy and followers of various religions, including Christian and Jewish denominations, have filed at least 15 lawsuits in at least eight states, alleging that abortion bans infringe on their beliefs. Many argue that their religious beliefs allow abortion in at least some circumstances and that the bans violate religious freedom and the separation of church and state.
The lawsuits, which are still in their early stages, show that “religious freedom doesn’t operate in one direction,” said Elizabeth Sepper, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
Guam could show what post-Roe America would look like.
The tiny island of Guam, a US territory 1,600 miles south of Japan, has become the purest laboratory for what life would be like if abortion were completely banned in the United States.
Although abortion is legal up to 13 weeks on Guam, the last abortion doctor left the island in 2018. The closest state in the United States with an abortion clinic is Hawaii, an eight-hour flight away. A pending court case could cut off access to abortion pills, the last legal method by which most women on Guam can end their pregnancies. And there is a push on the island to revive a near-total ban on abortions that was passed in 1990 and has been blocked by the courts for three decades.
“Guam is a litmus test,” said Attorney General Douglas Moylan, a Republican who opposes abortion and appealed to federal courts to lift the injunction on the 1990 ban. “If anti-abortion forces were successful anywhere in the United States, I would say Guam would be one of them.”
