The Implications of a Roe v. Wade Overturn

*CONTENT WARNING: use of women refers to anyone with a uterus.

This article was written prior to the official overturn on June 24th.

Roe v. Wade refers to the lawsuit leading to the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States. 50 years since the ruling, the right to a safe and legal abortion remains one of the most controversial and heavily debated topics today. While Roe has protected women’s rights to bodily autonomy, it now faces the threat of being overturned.

Ever since the installment of conservative Supreme Court justice, Amy Coney Barett, Americans have been anticipating a threat to abortion rights due to her longstanding opposition Roe v. Wade. This suspicion was confirmed on May 2, 2022, when a leaked draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito suggested that the Supreme Court had voted to overturn Roe v. Wade. The draft outlines the overturn in favor of making the legality of abortion a state-by-state decision. What this may mean, according to analysis done by the New York Times, is that abortion will be banned or heavily restricted in about half of the United States. Of the 64 million women of reproductive age living in America, half of them risk losing access to abortion in the absence of a federal mandate.  

Roe v. Wade has protected women and their bodily autonomy for half a century. To many Americans, the loss of such a right, especially in a country that holds freedom to the highest ideal, is near unfathomable. 

“If the report is accurate, the Supreme Court is poised to inflict the greatest restriction of rights in the past fifty years – not just on women but on all Americans. The Republican-appointed Justices’ reported votes to overturn Roe v. Wade could go down as an abomination, one of the worst and most damaging decisions in modern history,” Congress Democrats Chuck Shumer and Nancy Pelosi said following the leak. 

The overturning of Roe v. Wade would not only jeopardize women’s rights across America, but would also worsen existing social and economic gaps, intensify political polarization, and ultimately challenge the legitimacy of the Court.  For those with the resources, an abortion ban may mean traveling to a state that allows the procedure. However, traveling to a new state requires transportation, money, and the ability to take time off of work, which may not be possible for many women. Unsurprisingly, this disproportionately affects ethnic and racial minorities, especially those from low-income communities. With over 75% of abortion patients coming from low-income backgrounds, according to a 2014 study, the proposed draft would only reinforce disparities that minorities and low-income individuals face, given their already limited access to healthcare due to finances and systemic discrimination. 

Since Roe v. Wade was put into action, abortion rights has become an increasingly polarized issue, with Democrats siding “pro-choice” and Republicans aligning with a “pro-life” stance. Political polarization is at an all time high, and we’ve seen its disastrous effects in the 2021 U.S. Capitol Insurrection. With the massive outrage that the draft has sparked, an official enactment would unquestionably result in a ferocious battle between the two sides. In his draft, Alito criticizes that Roe v. Wade “sparked a national controversy that has embittered our political culture for half a century.” Apparently, he’s not aware that its overturning will do the same thing. 

Fundamentally, the Supreme Court is supposed to protect the rights of the citizens through their impartial decision making. Their fulfillment of this role has long been questioned, but there’s no doubt that the overturning of Roe v. Wade would elevate skepticism to new heights. Some see the leak itself as a symbol of an eroding institution, citing its inability to maintain confidentiality as evidence. 

With voting inequity and disparities in representation, individually state-decided abortion laws only promise to further disempower the people. The Supreme Court has no right to make such a sudden and life-altering decision, especially one that the majority of adults do not want. One can only wonder what a decision like this means for other formative, historical cases, including those for LGBTQ+ rights, protection against sexual harassment, racial equity, and many others. 

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by VIVIAN WANG

Lex Perspectives