Supreme Court’s egregiously wrong abortion reversal renders women second-class citizens

In January 1973, the Supreme Court ruled 7–2 in favor of Jane Roe — real name Norma McCorvey — and recognized women’s constitutional right to abortion without excessive government restrictions. On Friday, the court revoked that right, relegating women once again to second-tier citizenship.

The high court’s decision to overturn its seminal rulings in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which Justice Samuel Alito called “egregiously wrong,” is an unparalleled reversal of rights that is itself an egregious wrong.

Until now, the court has generally moved to expand recognition of individual Americans’ constitutional protections, not least through Roe. This ultra-conservative court seems eager to reverse that progress. In a concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the legal rationale for Friday’s decision could be used to overturn other landmark precedents, including the legalization of gay marriage.

Given the risks of illegal abortions as well as pregnancy, this ruling will have deadly consequences for those living in Republican-controlled states and beyond. Nor does this misogynistic decision do anything for the families and children conservatives claim to cherish. Families and children would benefit from prenatal and postnatal care, early childhood education, universal access to child care, and parental leave, not a reversal of half a century of recognition of women’s right to make decisions about their bodies.

This decision isn’t about saving babies or a conservative court’s reinterpretation of bad case law; it’s about exerting control over women.

California’s leaders have responded swiftly and appropriately to expand and bolster abortion rights since a draft of the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was revealed last month in an unprecedented and foreboding leak. Every newly necessary proposal that protects this basic human right deserves broad support.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared his intention to turn the state into a sanctuary for people seeking abortions, increasing spending on abortion services and access for the uninsured. Legislative leaders are also rightly pushing for an amendment to the state constitution to ensure that women retain the right to choose. A slate of 13 bills advancing through the California Legislature would bolster abortion access and reduce costs for Californians and those seeking abortions here.

Assembly Bill 2223, by Democratic Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks of Oakland, would protect Californians from prosecution for ending or losing a pregnancy. Senate Bill 1142, by Democratic Sens. Anna Caballero of Merced and Nancy Skinner of Berkeley, would establish an “Abortion Support Fund” to assist both in-state and out-of-state patients with abortions. And AB 2626, by Democratic Assemblyman Ian Calderon of Whittier, would protect the medical licenses of doctors providing legal abortion care in California. The Legislature should pass these bills.

But many pregnant people across the country, disproportionately lower-income and women of color, lack the means to travel to California or otherwise evade the reactionary restrictions that will be unleashed by this decision. Those are the people who will suffer the greatest and deadliest consequences of this ruling.

In light of that reality and the threat that abortion rights even within California could be infringed by other states and a future Congress, federal protection of the right remains paramount. Senate Democrats lack the votes to overcome or undo the filibuster, but President Joe Biden and lawmakers don’t have to stand by as a partisan court intrudes on the rights and autonomy of half the population.

Biden and Congress could, for example, unravel the Hyde Amendment and other long-standing restrictions on the use of federal funds for abortion, which affects pregnant people enrolled in federal programs, women in the military and Peace Corps, prisoners, and Native Americans, among others.

Ultimately, however, only the election of federal representatives who are wholly committed to abortion rights can undo the consequences of this ruling.

So today we will mourn. But tomorrow we will fight.

This story was originally published June 24, 2022 at 9:30 AM.