After nearly 50 years, US states once more have the power to ban abortion. This follows a decision by the US Supreme Court in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health, which struck down the 1973 decision in Roe v Wade, and declared: “Our decision returns the issue of abortion to those legislative bodies.”
On its own terms, Dobbs is one of the most significant supreme court decisions of this generation. Almost immediately, abortion clinics across the US were closed, as state legislatures, anticipating the decision, had set up “trigger laws” to ban abortion as soon as Roe was overturned. The last abortion clinic in the southern state of Mississippi has now shut down.
But, this decision carries significance beyond its immediate impact on US women. It hints at the possibility of a highly significant turn in supreme court precedent. By shrinking what is understood as a right under the US constitution, the court creates a patchwork of rights, based on state residency. This would entail a dramatic reversal of a democratic process, begun after the American civil war, to establish and expand a national standard of rights.
