Anti-Abortion Fight Gains Traction—Possibly to the Supreme Court

Women, dressed as characters from the post-apocalyptic book and television show Handmaid’s Tale, which is characterized by the brutal oppression of women, protesting outside the Alabama State House. (Image)

About a month ago, U.S. District Court Judge Steve C. Jones blocked Georgia’s controversial “heartbeat ban,” which Governor Brian Kemp signed into law in May. The bill would ban abortions past the identification of the fetal heartbeat, or at about six weeks. This law directly contradicts the precedent set by the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade, which stipulated a woman’s right to an abortion up until fetal viability—the ability of the fetus to survive outside the womb—usually identified at about 28 weeks. But Georgia is not alone in its challenge of this precedent. Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, and Alabama have also passed extremely restrictive abortion bans this year. Alabama’s is the most restrictive, making performing abortions illegal and punishable by up to 99 years in prison for the doctor, with the only exception being if the woman’s life is in serious danger, making no exceptions for rape or incest.

In fact, 17 states across the United States are considering or have passed abortion bans that flagrantly violate Roe v. Wade this year. Anti-abortion activists say that they have been inspired by President Donald Trump appointing conservative Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. Should any of the lawsuits against the restrictive abortion bans make their way to the Supreme Court, the new conservative majority would have the potential to overturn Roe v. Wade. Furthermore, Trump has pledged to continue to conservatize the nationwide judiciary, and it’s working: Republicans have appointed 69 percent of the judges on the Sixth Circuit, which includes Ohio. According to Ohio Right to Life president Michael Gonidakis, “This is the best court we’ve had in my lifetime, in my parents’ lifetime… We are winning a battle that we always used to lose.” 

However, these bans are not being taken lightly by women’s rights activists. Organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) have filed lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of these bills, with the CRR alone engaged in 26 lawsuits nationwide. And the majority of these lawsuits have been successful: district judges continue to block states’ restrictive abortion bans. According to U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves, who blocked Mississippi’s law, the state’s heartbeat bill “violates Supreme Court precedent, and in doing so it disregards the 14th Amendment guarantee of autonomy for women desiring to control their own reproductive health.” The CRR staff attorney on the Kentucky lawsuit, Hillary Schneller, said the heartbeat bill is “blatantly unconstitutional… It’s critical to remind people that none of these bans have taken effect and we don’t expect any of them to take effect.”

None of these cases have yet to make their way to the Supreme Court, though it is expected that at least one of them will, as states will likely appeal district judges’ blocks. Actually overturning Roe v. Wade would be a momentous and landmark decision that would certainly be met with extensive backlash from women’s rights activists. Former Planned Parenthood President Leana Wen warns: “There is a very real likelihood that Roe v. Wade could be overturned in this Supreme Court, which would leave 25 million women, which is a third of women of reproductive age in this country, without access to reproductive rights.”