By now we've all read the chilling words in Justice Samuel Alito's draft Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade. As I write, we're waiting for the final decision, coming any day now. Learning of the imminent demise of Roe did not come as a shock to many in the reproductive justice movement, but I'll be honest, the brazenness of Alito's language, the complete disregard for what legal abortion means for ensuring dignity and bodily autonomy, and the total lack of pretense that the court was respecting precedent while eviscerating access—that did shock me.
Fortunately, as a senior editor at The Nation, I can get to work turning shock into understanding.
I've been talking with our abortion access correspondent, Amy Littlefield, about what she'll focus on in the immediate aftermath of the decision. As Amy has reported, at least 26 states are poised to ban abortion soon after Roe is overturned; 13 states even have "trigger bans," laws banning abortion that go into effect as soon as Roe falls.
When I began reporting on reproductive rights in 2008, one of my first articles was about the spread of trigger laws. They seemed pernicious, but also far-fetched: The Christian right would soon be out of power, so Roe wasn't going anywhere—right? But the right was laying the groundwork for a frontal assault.
Still, in these same years, the reproductive justice movement has been fighting hard to expand access where it can, and, in many cases, winning. Getting old laws that criminalize abortion off the books, expanding telemedicine abortion and insurance coverage for abortion, and funding abortion outright—these and other advances are even more important now.
That organizing is now super-charged. Whatever happens in the coming weeks and months, we'll be right here, providing you with stories from across the country about the brave acts of resistance committed by activists unwilling to let access to abortion disappear.
–Emily Douglas, Senior Editor
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