As the US on Saturday marked one year since the country\u2019s supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, abortion rights supporters and politicians issued a call to action \u2013 and prepared for reproductive health to be a flashpoint of the 2024 presidential election.
The supreme court\u2019s decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women\u2019s Health reversed the landmark 1973 decision that had enshrined a federal right to abortion. In the wake of its overturning, more than one dozen states have green-lighted abortion bans, and many others have passed laws dramatically restricting access to the procedure.
\u201cStates have imposed extreme and dangerous abortion bans that put the health and lives of women in jeopardy, force women to travel hundreds of miles for care, and threaten to criminalize doctors for providing the health care that their patients need and that they are trained to provide,\u201d Joe Biden said in a statement.
The president added: \u201cYet state bans are just the beginning. Congressional Republicans want to ban abortion nationwide, but go beyond that, by taking FDA-approved medication for terminating a pregnancy off the market and [to] make it harder to obtain contraception. Their agenda is extreme, dangerous, and out-of-step with the vast majority of Americans.
\u201cMy administration will continue to protect access to reproductive health care and call on Congress to restore the protections of Roe v Wade in federal law once and for all.\u201d
During a powerful speech in North Carolina on Saturday, Vice-President Kamala Harris called for the restoration of abortion rights across the US, saying, \u201cExtremist Republicans in Congress have proposed to ban abortion nationwide. But I have news for them. We\u2019re not having that. We\u2019re not standing for that. We won\u2019t let that happen. And by the way, the majority of Americans are with us.
\u201cThe majority of Americans, I do believe, agree that one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government should not be telling her what to do with her body. The United States Congress must put back in place what the supreme court took away.\u201d
On Twitter, Texas\u2019s Democratic Congress member Jasmine Crockett described the period post-Dobbs as \u201ca year of trauma & terror for women across the country, especially in states like Texas where Roe was our last line of defense\u201d.
\u201cMy district is 40% Black and majority women. It\u2019s the people I represent that are hurt by life-saving medical care the most,\u201d she wrote. \u201cNorth Texas has the highest rate of hospitalization due to pregnancy complications in the entire state.
\u201cFor all their talk about protecting babies, let me ask you this: What happens to the already born children of a mother who dies from pregnancy complications because she can\u2019t get the treatment she needs during an ectopic pregnancy? Who\u2019s protecting them?\u201d
The US House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, decried \u201crightwing extremists on the supreme court\u201d for \u201cshamefully\u201d reversing the decades-long precedent.
\u201cMaga Republicans in Congress want to impose a nationwide ban on abortion care,\u201d the New York Democrat warned, referring to the Donald Trump presidency\u2019s Make American Great Again slogan. \u201cHouse Dems are working hard to stop these extremists and restore reproductive freedom.\u201d
As many issued calls to action, some took steps to protect abortion rights. Arizona\u2019s Democratic governor Katie Hobbs on Friday signed an executive order to better protect abortion rights across the south-western state.
The executive order makes central all abortion-related prosecutions under Arizona\u2019s attorney general so that local prosecutors don\u2019t limit access to abortions. Hobbs\u2019s executive order also directs state agencies not to aid in any investigations relating to providing, assisting, seeking or obtaining reproductive health care that would be legal in Arizona.
Hobbs\u2019s order also calls on Arizona to refuse extradition requests from other states that want to prosecute persons seeking or providing legal abortion services in Arizona.
Amid Democrats\u2019 calls for the restoration of abortion rights, a group of influential reproductive rights organizations \u2013 including Planned Parenthood \u2013 endorsed Biden and Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
A statement from Alexis McGill Johnson, head of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said: \u201cAbortion is healthcare. \u2026 We need leaders who are committed to protecting our freedoms, not taking them away.\u201d
While the upcoming presidential election is unlikely to be a landslide for either party \u2013 victories and losses in recent elections have been decided with thin margins \u2013 most American voters disagree with Roe\u2019s reversal.
In an NBC News poll published Friday, 61% of voters said they disagreed with the court\u2019s decision in Dobbs. Sixty-seven percent of women disapproved of the ruling.
Despite the fact that Roe\u2019s reversal appears to have little popular support, anti-abortion leaders are describing the decision as a first step.
\u201cWe are at the starting line,\u201d said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion group Susan B Anthony Pro-Life America. \u201cWe have just begun. We have just begun a journey to start saving lives.\u201d
Protests opposing the Dobbs decision are expected across the US throughout the weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n