While the supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade sent shockwaves around the country, many activists, physicians and advocacy groups closely engaged in the fight over abortion in the US were not surprised.
Since Roe’s establishment of the federal right to abortion in 1973, anti-abortion advocates and conservative lawmakers have been chipping away at it. Restrictions on abortion increased over the last decade, and by the mid-2010s, seven states had just one abortion clinic left. In Mississippi, where the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization case that ultimately ended Roe originated, the state’s one clinic did not provide abortions beyond 16 weeks of pregnancy, meaning many people already had to travel to find care.
For residents in a state with the highest poverty rate in the nation, where there is no guaranteed childcare, and where elected officials have refused to expand Medicaid to cover low-income workers, that often meant obtaining an abortion was unlikely. For those who do move forward with pregnancies, the state doesn’t make that easy either. The states like Mississippi that have now passed the strictest abortion laws are also typically the ones with the lowest minimum wages, the least generous policies that support families, least access to education and to health care. In many southern states, the rates of maternal and infant mortality and morbidity are among the highest in the country. The US has the highest maternal death rate of any wealthy country, and Black women suffer most – they’re three to four times as likely to die from pregnancy-related complications as white women.
