On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-3-1 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that established the constitutional right to abortion in the U.S. in 1973. In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled by a vote of 7-2 that a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy was protected by the U.S. Constitution.
In 2022, the court’s ruling gives individual states the power to restrict or ban abortions. Almost half the states are expected to outlaw or severely restrict abortion as a result of the decision.
Thirteen states have already passed trigger laws that will automatically outlaw abortion following the ruling.
13 states have trigger laws that go into effect now — or will go into effect very quickly — that will ban abortion:
Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 24, 2022
This ruling will greatly impact Black women in this country. A study from Duke University in December 2021 suggested that a complete abortion ban could increase Black maternal deaths by 33 percent.
Black women are also three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than White women, and twice as likely to lose an infant to premature death.
Natalie Moore, the author of The Billboard, which is about abortion, told rolling out that Black women’s lack of access to reproductive care puts them at higher risk of poor outcomes.
