US Supreme Court’s abortion ruling remains a ‘live wire’ a year on

The aftershocks of the US Supreme Court’s decision overturning a constitutional right to abortion will continue to reverberate through US politics as voters mobilise against tough new restrictions backed by Republicans, the head of America’s top family planning organisation has said.

The comments from Alexis McGill Johnson, the president of Planned Parenthood, came on the eve of the first anniversary of Dobbs vs Jackson Women’s Health Organization, in which the court’s conservative majority upended access to healthcare for women across the US by removing federal protections for the procedure enshrined in Roe vs Wade.

That paved the way for a patchwork of new curbs in Republican-led states, while propelling abortion back to the top of the political agenda. It helped president Joe Biden’s Democratic party perform better than expected in last year’s midterm elections — and Johnson said it would continue to be a “live wire” heading into the 2024.

“You don’t just take away somebody’s freedom, and they suddenly forget about it and they don’t remember to act on it,” Johnson said. “The stories are going to keep coming out about the impact, and [Republicans] can’t run away from their record, and I think that’s an advantage for the Democrats coming into 2024.”

In a wide-ranging interview, Johnson described the medical and emotional toll inflicted over the past year by the court’s decision, creating divisions in access to abortion that were eerily reminiscent of the Civil War-era split between “free states” and those allowing slavery.

“It’s no coincidence that many of the states that fell below the Mason-Dixon Line are many of the states that have enacted very significant bans,” she said. “The harm is on people of colour, black, brown, indigenous folks, rural folks, low income folks who aren’t able to travel to take those journeys by themselves [to receive care].”

“These are people having to go through additional hurdles and burdens — and when you have rights in one state, and you no longer have rights protected by the Constitution in another, I think the parallel really does hold,” she said.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, which tracks the status of abortion policy in the US, 14 states, including Texas and Tennessee, now have full abortion bans in place. Two more, including Georgia, have imposed gestational limits on the procedure between six and 12 weeks, and another nine, including Ohio, have set the limit between 15 weeks and 22 weeks of pregnancy. Abortion is legal beyond 22 weeks of pregnancy in 25 states and the District of Columbia.

However, some of the toughest restrictions have been blocked by courts in some states, such as Ohio, where a tougher six-week ban has been put on hold by a judge while it is being litigated.

Johnson says that since the Supreme Court ruling was handed down thousands of Americans have been denied access to abortion, and in Planned Parenthood clinics it was “not uncommon” to see both patients and providers in tears as they adapt to the new restrictions.

There have even been cases of women being driven into medical emergencies — “sent to the parking lot to wait for sepsis to set in” — so they could qualify for abortion exceptions to save the life of the mother, Johnson said.

One big difference compared to the pre-Roe days, however, is the widespread availability of mifepristone, medication used to terminate a pregnancy. “People are able to self-manage abortion and do so safely. And I think that is something that’s very important for people to know and understand,” Johnson said.

But even that has been challenged by conservative activists: its legality was thrown into question after a federal judge in Texas ruled to strip its approval by the US drugs regulator, although that decision has been put on hold by the Supreme Court while proceedings continue.

After the Texas ruling, Planned Parenthood went further than they ever had in questioning the structure of the US judiciary, calling for an expansion of the Supreme Court to dilute the power of the conservative majority.

Although US president Joe Biden has not embraced such an overhaul, Johnson praised the White House for doing what it could to limit the damage from the Dobbs decision. Kamala Harris, the vice-president, has been especially central to the effort and is due to hold an event on abortion rights in North Carolina on Saturday.

Some “really big questions” needed to be asked of corporate America and business leaders, Johnson said. While some have criticised the ruling and agreed to help their employees cross state lines to gain access to healthcare, some executives are still donating to politicians who have backed tough restrictions or confirmed ultra-conservative judges to the federal bench, she added.

“Many of these companies are the lifeblood of many of these lawmakers who are making these horrible decisions,” Johnson said. “We’ll continue to press on that because we know the workforce they are trying to attract very much supports reproductive freedom”.

On the 2024 Republican campaign trail, there have been few signs of candidates relenting in their drive for strict abortion restrictions as they try to court primary voters, even though a record 69 per cent of Americans supports legal abortion during the first trimester of gestation, according to a recent Gallup poll.

Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor and presidential hopeful, has signed a bill for his state to move to a six-week ban, while Donald Trump, the frontrunner, has boasted that he was able to “kill” Roe vs Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court precedent protecting abortion rights in the US until last year. On Capitol Hill, some Republicans have continued to champion a national ban.

But Johnson insists that the backlash is as strong as it was a year ago and may even be building. “If you can’t control when and if you become pregnant, you aren’t able to control so many other factors in your life,” she says.

“That kind of government interference in people’s personal medical decisions, obviously is something that draws independents out, and persuades them to participate. It draws progressives out and amps up that base, and I think it brings out a lot of people on the right for whom freedom and privacy are fundamental values”.