How a 51-year-old legal case still troubles America

Washington: Kathryn Archer was 21 weeks into her second pregnancy when her doctor delivered the devastating news.

Having made it through her first trimester with what seemed like a healthy baby on the way, an anatomy scan on January 4 suddenly changed everything.

Hope Neyer marks the first anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision that overturned Roe v Wade, by displaying a neon sign in support of abortion access in front of the US Supreme Court.Credit: AP

“I will never forget the moment when my amazing doctor walked into the room and said: ‘Kathryn, we need to talk. This baby has abnormalities from head to toe’,” she recalls.

“Our baby girl, Cecilia, had extensive brain developmental issues; a large spina bifida; her bladder was outside of her body; and there were many other issues related to her lower body and stomach.

“If she were to somehow miraculously make it, her life would have looked like major surgery after major surgery, with minimal chance of her surviving a life of pain.”

As much as Archer and her husband wanted another baby – and a sibling for their three-year-old daughter – they came to the conclusion that the best thing they could do was terminate the pregnancy.

But due to laws enacted last year after the US Supreme Court overturned federal abortion rights, she couldn’t get the healthcare she needed in her home state of Tennessee, where abortions are now banned and doctors face jail if they try to assist in such procedures.

An anti-abortion supporter sits behind a sign that advises the Jackson Women’s Health Organisation clinic is still open in Jackson, Missouri.Credit: AP

Archer’s only option was to travel to another state where abortion remained legal, which ended up costing her about $US10,000 ($15,000) for travel, hotels, food, childcare and the procedure itself. After an agonising weeks-long wait for an appointment, she ended her pregnancy.

Such is the reality of life in the US one year after the nation’s highest court struck down Roe v Wade, the 1973 landmark ruling that gave women the constitutional right to access abortion in America.

The monumental decision threw abortion policy back to the states, undoing 50 years of precedent and seismically shifting the social and political landscape in America.

Since then, about 13 states have enacted near-total bans on abortion – with no exceptions for rape or incest – while others have bans with gestational limits. In Georgia, for example, abortion is prohibited after six weeks; in Nebraska it’s after 12 weeks.

Clinics across the country have shut down, forcing women to travel hundreds of kilometres away if they want treatment. In states where abortion is still legal, such as Illinois or New Mexico, women are waiting longer for an appointment because of the surge in demand.

And many are unable to terminate pregnancies despite growing health risks, or face unwanted pregnancies if they can’t find the money or a provider to help them.

In Ohio, a 10-year-old rape victim last year had to get an abortion in neighbouring Indiana because her state now prohibits abortions from the time cardiac activity can be detected in an embryo, which is typically around the sixth week of pregnancy.

In Texas, which bans all abortions from the moment of conception except in cases of a “life-threatening physical condition” a group of women is suing the state, with some claiming they almost died because they couldn’t get timely procedures.

And in Florida, which banned abortion at 15 weeks but has now sought to reduce it to six, another woman had to carry her baby to full term because she was denied an abortion, despite doctors knowing her child wouldn’t survive. He stayed alive for 99 minutes after she gave birth.

All this comes despite polls showing most American’s don’t support the Supreme Court’s decision. With 17 months until the presidential election, the issue continues to galvanise Democrats, who were able to fend off an expected Republican red wave at last year’s US midterms, partly by campaigning on the issue of “reproductive freedom”.

Donald Trump and Mike Pence as president and vice president in April 2020.Credit: AP

Speaking at an event with pro-choice advocacy groups on Friday, the eve of the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision, President Joe Biden said abortion would once again be “on the ballot” at next year’s poll.

“Make no mistake, this election is about freedom … We can’t let them take us backwards,” he told the crowd at Washington’s Mayflower Hotel.

Earlier, the president – who is limited in terms of what he can do federally given Democrats don’t have the votes in Congress – also issued an executive order aimed at protecting and increasing access to contraception.

Republicans, meanwhile, used a Friday gathering at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual conference to highlight their own views as they jockeyed for the party’s nomination to run for the White House against Biden next year.

Former vice president Mike Pence, an evangelical Christian, took the staunchest position, urging all candidates who are seeking the Republican presidential nomination to endorse a national ban that would prohibit abortions after 15 weeks “as a minimum nationwide standard”.

Republican Nancy Mace has urged her party to find middle ground. Credit: AP

“We must not rest and we must not relent until we restore the sanctity of life to the centre of American law in every state in this country,” he said, effectively challenging Donald Trump to assert his position.

Trump has long avoided being drawn into answering questions on a national ban, opting instead to focus on his presidential legacy in nominating three of the judges who helped overturn Roe v Wade: Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch.

Asked repeatedly about the issue during a CNN town hall interview last month, the former president, who is now frontrunner for the Republican nomination, merely replied: “What I am willing to do is negotiate, so people are happy.”

Republican strategists say Trump is well aware of the balancing act that all the candidates face: keeping the base of the party onside, without alienating large chunks of the broader electorate.

But over the weekend, in a speech to evangelical Christians, the former president said there’s a “vital role for the federal government in protecting unborn life”.

He did not offer specifics on what a federal role would involve, though he also made it clear that he wants to see exceptions for abortions including in cases of rape, incest and for the life of the mother.

Polls show that public sentiment has notably shifted over the past 12 months since Roe v Wade was repealed. According to the latest Gallup research, a record high 69 per cent of Americans say abortion should generally be legal in the first three months of pregnancy; more voters than ever say they will only vote for a candidate who shares their views on abortion; and 61 per cent of Americans believe overturning Roe was a “bad thing”.

South Carolina Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace, who was a victim of rape at the age of 16, warned that her party needed to find a middle ground if they wanted to win over suburban women and independent voters.

She said that “Republicans won the Superbowl” when the Supreme Court repealed Roe v Wade but “what happened as a consequence of that is voters really rejected the idea of Roe being overturned – even pro-life voters”.

President Joe Biden speaks about abortion access at a rally in Washington in 2022.Credit: AP

Conservative states like Kansas also provide a cautionary tale. Last year, in what became the first political test of the Supreme Court’s decision to wind back abortion rights nationally, Kansans blocked a plan that would have allowed future limits or bans on the right of women to terminate a pregnancy.

The August decision was the first time voters had a chance to have their voices heard on abortion rights since Roe v Wade was overturned, setting the scene for similar successful ballots later that year to protect reproductive rights in California, Michigan, Montana, Kentucky and Vermont.

“We don’t ever want to forget that this was the first time the Supreme Court has ever, in US history, taken away an individual personal liberty,” said Nancy Northup, president of the Centre for Reproductive Rights.

“But it has also become a really powerful rallying cry. The vast majority of people in the United States support the right to access abortion care, and they disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision in reversing Roe v Wade, so this has also been a time when people are making their voices heard.”

Back in Tennessee, Kathryn Archer remains optimistic. After facing what she describes as an “impossible choice” – between terminating her pregnancy or giving birth to a child when “we knew her death was a certain outcome” – she and her husband are starting to talk about having another baby when the grief subsides.

And just as she hopes for another child, Archer says she also hopes for a time in which all women in her home state will have the right to make their own reproductive decisions with the care of their doctors.

“It’s not too late to change,” she says.

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