In the landmark 1973 decision of Roe v. Wade, the United States Supreme Court ruled that an individual’s right to terminate or continue a pregnancy was their own, completely independent of government involvement. In this case, a Texas law banning abortion without medical consent to save a woman’s life was challenged by Jane Roe. The Court found that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment granted all citizens a fundamental right to privacy, and ruled that a woman’s right to access an abortion is encompassed within this Amendment. As a result, the federal government mandated that within a woman’s first trimester of pregnancy, state legislatures were no longer allowed to regulate or restrict a woman’s ability to have an abortion.
Following this ruling, the US was venerated as a leading nation advancing gender equality and women’s rights. However, its longstanding rival, the Soviet Union, was the first modern state to legalize abortion in 1920, over half a century earlier. Relative to other countries, where society’s foundations lie in the purest expression of patriarchal regulation, mandates restricting women seemed absent in the US. In Afghanistan, women are forced to wear a hijab and are closely regulated from decision-making as fundamental as their outer garment clothing. Similarly, until 2018, women were prohibited from driving in Saudi Arabia. This same year the Saudi King signed a royal decree aiding progressive reform, the United States began a pattern of regressive development. The SCOTUS ruled that individuals working at crisis pregnancy centers could provide misleading information and wrongfully pose as medical professionals, breaching medical credibility. This ruling went unaddressed and later became subject to manipulation, undermining democracy and leading to greater violations of human rights foreseen a few years later.
In June of 2022, a case by the name of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was brought to the Supreme Court of the United States. This case questioned whether Mississippi’s recent law, titled the “Gestational Age Act,” was unconstitutional, as it banned all abortions 15 weeks into pregnancies. In analyzing this statute, members of the Supreme Court concluded that there was no mention of the right to abortion within the Constitution, and as such, this right should not be endowed with protection. In reaching this determination, the precedent established in 1973 by Roe v. Wade was overturned. As a result, abortion rights in the United States are no longer federally protected.
With the US at the forefront of international authority and influence, the ruling set forth by Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization will likely set a precedent for future judicial legislation. This monumental verdict is expected to influence countries that remain skeptical about protecting reproductive rights while serving as justification for those with existing strict regulations. As the only country in the European Union with restrictive laws on abortion, Poland has faced strenuous pushback from the international community. Since the start of 2021, the state’s seemingly Christian government has implemented nearly a complete ban on abortion. Legislation passed alongside the nation’s Constitutional Tribunal has deemed the most common abortion measures illegal. However, with the overturn of Roe, Polish leaders now turn toward the US in moments of dissent, arguing that one of the EU’s primary allies promoteshas implemented parallel policies.
The US has already seen a surge in funding toward anti-abortion groups and a divestment in reproductive health. A recent study by the Associated Press found that around $89 million in tax dollars had been funneled into religiously affiliated pregnancy centers in the past fiscal year. As a global superpower with the world’s largest economy, the US and its funds are relied upon by many nations to aid their endeavors. These states will likely align themselves with the country’s new politicized stance on reproductive rights in the hopes of economic reprieve.
In 2020, Kenya recognized access to abortion as a human right endowed to its citizens under the nation’s constitution. The decision was made due to a petition, citing the US Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade as a tool justifying access to abortion and sexual health services. A similar act was decreed in Cape Verde and Malawi, where abortion became legalized until certain weeks of gestation due to its favorable reception in the States. Domestic policy in the United States often catalyzes international effects; as such, the overturn of Roe has the potential to hinder the growth of progressive reform on a global scale.
There exists an underlying overlap between the religious, cultural, and governmental beliefs surrounding female worth and compulsory heterosexuality in which women are assumed to be passive recipients of divinely ordained male sexuality. While in the past 30 years, nearly 60 countries have made extensive progress in expanding access to reproductive rights, some have regressed, including Nicaragua, Poland, El Salvador, and now, the United States. Initiating control over women through increased surveillance and the governance of their bodies may begin insidiously; however, it establishes a troubling precedent for the future. In the United States, the land known as the epicenter of freedom, women lack control over their own bodily autonomy. Who is to say other countries will not follow? Accepting this system allows it to endure and ultimately fuels a social dynamic where women have become valuable assets for exploitation. This patriarchal-based culture in which women are exiled from the ability to choose is a weapon used to control and render freedom – the essence of humanity.
