The US Supreme Court’s overturning of the landmark court ruling Roe vs Wade nearly half a century ago giving the country’s women constitutional protection for abortion indicates dark times. It undermines women’s rights over their own bodies and personal family choices. The US SC verdict reflects the political divide in America and sends a wrong signal to the rest of the world. The irony is democracy has been used to trample women’s fundamental rights to bodily autonomy, reproductive health, safety and health equity. The verdict was pronounced after six judges ruled there is no constitutional right to abortion in the United States. The vote was 6-3, but Chief Justice John Roberts did not join his conservative colleagues in overturning the ruling. He wrote that there was no need to overturn the broad ruling validating abortion. Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — representing the liberal wing of the court — gave a dissenting note to the majority judgement. Their observation is pregnant with meaning for the plight of women in the US. “With sorrow — for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection — we dissent,” they wrote, warning that abortion opponents now could pursue a nationwide ban “from the moment of conception and without exceptions for rape or incest.”
Former US President Donald Trump, who during his presidency had approved of the induction of the three conservative judges who were among those who gave the ruling, hailed the verdict. Predictably, President Joe Biden called the verdict a sad development. Echoing the President’s concern, Attorney General Merrick Garland assured American women that the Justice Department will protect providers and those seeking abortions in states where it is legal and “work with other arms of the federal government that seek to use their lawful authorities to protect and preserve access to reproductive care.”
More than 90 per cent of abortions take place in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, and more than half are now done with pills, not surgery, according to an American research group that supports abortion rights. Almost half the US states are likely to implement the ban. This will force abortion seekers to travel to the other states ruled by Democrats for termination of pregnancy. But, those who cannot afford the expenses would have to seek illegal routes which will only make abortion risky. According to a World Health Organisation report, nearly half of pregnancies worldwide are unwanted. Abortion ensures women’s reproductive health is not further impaired. The US apex court ruling robs American women of that right.
What is worse is that this is the beginning of the end of several other rights gained through protracted struggle for years on end because of a conservative majority now in the US SC. This is clear from the exhortations by Justice Clarence Thomas, part of the majority favouring the ban, to his colleagues to overturn other court rulings protecting same-sex marriage, gay sex and the use of contraceptives.
After the verdict, a number of multinational companies have announced that they would defray the cost of travel to other states for abortions by their employees. At the same time, several states ruled by Democrats have reportedly started augmenting facilities for abortion to handle the expected additional rush. At the same time, this verdict will have devastating and fatal impacts on women from racially and economically backward sections of American society, costing their lives, liberties and futures.
This majority judgement will be remembered as a deeply regressive step for American girls and women. The condemnation of a large number of world leaders, including those in Europe, shows the retrograde step has besmirched the reputation of the justice system of one of the world’s oldest modern democracies. However, this extreme Right conservative mindset is not limited to the US SC alone. The Indian government too, while pushing for the Aadhaar identification system had, during the arguments delivered by the attorney general Mukul Rohatgi claimed that the citizen does not have “absolute right” over one’s body. This mindset of depriving the individual of basic human rights and the right to live as one chooses is a danger that has cropped up in most countries ruled by fascist thoughts.