
“We are prepared to not only create a legal landscape to protect life at the federal and state levels, but also to support a culture of life,” said Kristen Waggoner, general counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which supports Mississippi’s ban at 15 weeks that led to the Supreme Court case that could overturn Roe.
Advocates on the left see the leaked draft laying out a playbook for a sweeping attempt to roll back other established rights. “There are some folks on the right saying they’re just turning back to the states, when in fact it’s very clear their agenda is much broader than that,” Ms. Ford of NARAL said. “It’s not just about abortion.”
The State of Roe v. Wade
What is Roe v. Wade? Roe v. Wade is a landmark Supreme court decision that legalized abortion across the United States. The 7-2 ruling was announced on Jan. 22, 1973. Justice Harry A. Blackmun, a modest Midwestern Republican and a defender of the right to abortion, wrote the majority opinion.
Criticism that such a decision could create a cultural revolution, potentially upending precedent protections for other issues, including contraception and same-sex and interracial marriage is “hysteria and scaremongering,” Ms. Waggoner said.
Abortion uniquely has sustained support and energy, as shown by the annual March for Life, abortion opponents said.
Ms. Carroll, the spokeswoman for the Susan B. Anthony List, noted that there have not been sustained mass protests over other landmark Supreme Court rulings, on issues such as interracial marriage and contraception.
The movement has long been divided loosely into incrementalists, mainstream groups such as the Susan B. Anthony List and the National Right to Life Committee, that for years focused on gaining ground restriction by restriction, and absolutists, who saw anything less than the total elimination of abortion as failure. This moment is a convergence of both, with the court considering reversing Roe, and states like Texas and Oklahoma effectively banning abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy, before many women even realize they are pregnant.
Now there are emerging disagreements on the moral and practical benefits of strategies like prosecuting pregnant women, and making it illegal to cross state lines for an abortion.