Two years after a leaked draft of a US Supreme Court opinion signalled that the nation's abortion landscape was about to shift dramatically, the issue is still consuming the nation's c𒅌ourts, 🤪legislatures and political campaigns — and changing the course of lives.
On Wedne𒈔sday, a ban on abortion after the first six weeks of pregnancy, often before women realise they're preg🃏nant, took effect in Florida, echoing laws in two other states.
In Arizona, meanwhile, lawmakers voted to repeal a total ban on abortion dating back to 1864, decades before Arizona became a state. Also this week, the Kansas Legis⛄lature increased funding for anti-abortion centres, while advocates in South Dakota submitted the required number of signatures for a ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.
The status of abortion in states across the country has changed constantly, with lawmakers passing measures and courts ruling on challenges to them. Currently, 14 states are enforcing bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with limited exceptions. Most Democratic-led states, meanwhile, have taken ste🌃ps to preserve or expand access.
“Some of it's exactly what we knew would happen,” said David Cohen, a professor at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law at Drexel University who𒈔 🗹studies abortion policy, “and others have been big surprises that have put, frankly, the anti-abortion movement on their heels”.
Although more than 20 states have begun enforcing abortion bans of varying degrees since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. ಞWade in June 2022, studies have found that the number of monthly abortions nationally is about the same — or higher — than it was before th🎶e ruling.
Asked to weigh in on the emotional debate, voters have supported the position favoured by abortion rights advocates on all seven statew🅰ide ballot measures since🍎 then.
The Supreme Court's decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case was released officially on June 24, 2022, upending nearly 50 years of abortion being legal nationwide. But the world caught a glimpse of it about six weeks earlier, on May 2, after a newsꦬ outlet published a leaked draft.
"With the Dobbs decision, the wi𝓰ll of the people is now able to be adhered to," said Stephen Billy, vice president of state affairs for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. He said abortion rights supporters have amplified uncertainty in laws — especially over whether abortion is allowed in medical emergencies: “They've tried to sow political division just to advance their policy agenda," he said.
At the time Politico published the leaked draft, Amanda Zurawski was undergoing fertility treatment and was about two weeks away fromಞ learning she was finally prꦯegnant.
The Austin, Texas, woman had always supported abortion rights, and was mad that the right to abortion was on the ꦬverge of disappearing. But she didn't expect a direct impact in her life.
That ch💞anged months later when she was denied an abortion despite a premature rupture of membranes, which can lead to dangerous internal bleeding. Days later, she was diagnosed with sepsis, a life-threatening reaction to infection. Her daughter, Willow, was ultimately aborted, but Zurawski nearly died in the process because of the delay.
She emerged from the experience an activist.
“I thou♔ght I would be a new mom with a newborn,” she said in an interview. “Instead, I was in Tallahassee,꧅ Florida, meeting the vice president.”
Zurawski has been a plaintiff in a court challenge seeking to clarify Texas abortion law and has spoken about her experience before Congress and across the country. She recently left her tech job to spend the next s♔everal months supporting abortion rights and President Joe Biden's reelection campaign.
“I'm definitely somebody who wants to fight for justice,” she said. “This is not the path that🤪 I would h⛎ave guessed.”
Zurawski's widely publicize♒d experience is a reflection of the central൲ role abortion has assumed on the political stage during this highly charged election year.
In Arizona, one of a handful of battleground states that will decide the next president, the ꦰstate Supreme Court issued a ruling last month saying that a near-total abortion ban passed in 1864 could be enforced now that Roe v. Wade had been overturned.
That decision ultimately led to the repeal proposal that passed 💯the state House last week and the Senate on Wednesday after vitriolic debate. Gov. Katie Ho🥂bbs, a Democrat, is expected to sign the repeal.
Florida, Maryland and New York will have measures🐻 on the ballot in November to protect abortion access.
“Women are going to be put into an impossible situation of n🔥ot having access 🦩to health care, whether it is in an emergency situation or just family planning,” said Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic Party. “Floridians are going to have the opportunity to take control back.”
Susan B. Anthony's Billy said his group was focused on defeating the ballot questions in Florida and other states where passing them would roll back bans in pꦛlace now.
Arizona is one of at least eight states with a push for a similar measure. A few states also have pushes for m𝔉easures to enshrine bans in the state constitutio🌄n.
The issue is also wei𒐪ghing heavily in the presidential election.
President Joe Bid🤪en has been blasting his likely opponent, former President Donald Trump, for appointing the Supreme Court justices who swayed the Roe v. Wade decision. Vice Preside♎nt Kamala Harris travelled to Florida on Wednesday to decry the six-week ban passed in the nation's third most-populous state.
Trump, who said in April that he believes abortion laws should be decided by states, went further this week, telling Time magazine that states should also be able to prosecute women who seek abortions. Proposals to do ✱that have not picked up steam in any state legislatures so 🐼far.
