How the Supreme Court could limit abortion rights
The appointment of conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett raises the possibility that Roe v. Wade could be overturned.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed to the Supreme Court this week in a narrow 52-48 Senate vote. Barrett’s confirmation came just 30 days after being nominated by President Donald Trump to fill the seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The appointment flips the high court from a 5-4 conservative majority to 6-3.
A 48-year-old mother of seven, Barrett is the youngest justice on the court and only the fifth woman chosen for a seat. As a staunch conservative and devout Catholic, Barrett could be the deciding vote in upcoming cases dealing with abortion rights, potentially overturning the landmark decision of Roe v. Wade.
When pressed on the topic of abortion rights during her confirmation hearing, Barrett declined to say whether she would vote to strike down Roe. She said she would not join the court with an agenda on the topic and would “stick to the rule of law and decide cases as they come.”
Legal abortion access would remain unchanged in Connecticut if Roe were overturned, as the decision legalizing abortion has been codified into state law. Compared to other states, Connecticut has one of the strongest laws protecting abortion rights. There is no parental consent requirement for minors, as well as no mandatory counseling or delays. There are also no limitations on abortions paid with public funds.
Abortion would likely become illegal in 22 states in the absence of Roe, closing the nearest abortion clinic for 41 percent of women of childbearing age, according to The New York Times.
We spoke to Liz Gustafson, state director of NARAL Pro-Choice Connecticut, and Laura Echevarria of the National Right to Life Committee, Inc. about the newly confirmed justice and the future of abortion rights in America.
Marchers and counter-protestors at the 2020 March for Life in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Maria Oswalt via Unsplash)
What are your thoughts on the confirmation of Justice Barrett?
Gustafson: During this pandemic, the Senate should be focused on the health and safety of our communities and not rushing in a power grab to further implement their ideological agenda. It is indicative of their true intent. They are not pro-life, they are anti-choice and they are anti-science.
If they were pro-life, they would not be working tirelessly to gut the Affordable Care Act, especially during a pandemic. They would not be working to confirm someone who is anti-choice, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-science to a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court.
Echevarria: My hope would be that Roe v. Wade would be overturned in my lifetime, but that is going to depend on a number of factors. The court can’t just make a random decision, something has to come before them before something like that can be done. The justice who was just added to the court has made a commitment to defend the constitution and the principles from judicial restraint.
How would overturning Roe v. Wade impact access to abortion?
Gustafson: If Roe were overturned, it would be flipped to the states. Some states would experience varying degrees of bans on abortion.
Nothing would change in Connecticut because Roe was codified into state law, but legality does not equal access. Connecticut has the opportunity and the responsibility to go beyond Roe v. Wade and implement proactive and pro-choice policies to make sure that the full range of reproductive healthcare services, including abortion, are accessible to everyone, regardless of race, gender identity, immigration, or economic status. Roe is not the ceiling, it’s the floor.
Echevarria: What happens is the law reverts to the states and it varies from state to state. There are some states, like New York, that have basically said that abortion should be available at any time, under any circumstances, for whatever reason. There are some states that have trigger laws, where if Roe were overturned those laws would kick in. The states making these decisions for themselves based upon their legislatures.
Where does access to abortion currently stand in the U.S. and what do you hope for it to be in the future?
Gustafson: Where people can go to actually get their care varies widely across the country. When you think about people who have to take time off work, people who have to get child care, people who need transportation, those are very significant barriers and those are barriers that disproportionally impact people of color, people living with low incomes, people who are undocumented, young people, people with disabilities and those living in rural areas.
If Roe were overturned, it would do is not only threaten access but threaten the quality of care. People are always going to have abortions. People had abortions before Roe, and they are going to continue to have abortions. We have to do everything we can as a state to make it as accessible as possible for not only our own residents but also folks who might potentially need to travel.
Echevarria: We as a society have done a disservice to women. The vast majority of women who seek an abortion do so primarily because of a lack of support at home.
We cheat young women by not telling them that there are resources, that there are answers, that their only way out of this is to have an abortion, that they can’t have a career and a baby. We cheat them repeatedly. We should be celebrating what makes us different and what makes us unique, and we should be helping young women achieve their goals and be able to have their baby.