The absence of a constitutional guarantee to the right to an abortion has led to a deeply inconsistent landscape of reproductive policy across the map. This year, voters in many states resoundingly elected officials who stood for abortion rights over those who vowed to enact restrictions. Yet, state lawmakers elsewhere implemented draconian abortion bans that would have been unconstitutional under Roe v. Wade, and we saw officials go to great lengths to prosecute, intimidate and shame individuals under those laws.
Voters repeatedly affirmed their support and rebuked Republicans with hard-line anti-abortion positions.
Where abortion rights were at stake, voters repeatedly affirmed their support and rebuked Republicans with hard-line anti-abortion positions. In Virginia, Democrats who campaigned heavily on protecting abortion access took back control of the state Legislature in the midterm election, delivering a blow to state Republicans’ and Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s hard-line anti-abortion platform. In Kentucky, voters re-elected Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear to a second term over state Attorney General Daniel Cameron, whose long anti-abortion record was front and center in the race. In Pennsylvania, Democrat Dan McCaffery clinched a seat on the state Supreme Court over his Republican rival, who was endorsed by anti-abortion groups. McCaffery’s victory further shored up the defense against anti-abortion attacks in the swing state.
Yet, following a string of ballot amendment wins last year — including in Ohio, where voters emphatically backed enshrining reproductive rights in the state Constitution — Republican lawmakers have resorted to denying the results, attempting to strip courts of the ability to interpret the amendments, or trying to make it harder for citizen-led initiatives to appear on ballots.
Elsewhere, nightmare post-Dobbs environments have emerged. According to a report from the Abortion Care Network, almost two dozen independent abortion clinics shuttered this year, on top of the 42 that closed in 2022. As of this month, 14 states have banned abortion almost completely.
These bans have had devastating consequences for pregnant people. In Florida, Deborah Dorbert was forced to carry to term a baby with no kidneys who lived for only 99 minutes and died in her arms. In Oklahoma, Jaci Statton, who had a nonviable and potentially cancerous pregnancy, was denied an abortion after an ultrasound technician prevented her from receiving an exception to the state ban.
An analysis by the Institute of Labor Economics estimates that every state with an abortion ban saw an increase in the birth rate, and those effects were larger on younger women and women of color. Yet, at least two studies found that abortion rates did not decrease but have grown slightly since Roe was overturned, especially in states where abortion remains legal. The results suggest that people are traveling farther and more frequently to those states to obtain an abortion.
In Texas, Kate Cox, a mother of two who was carrying a nonviable pregnancy, was denied an abortion even though the pregnancy risked her ability to conceive in the future. Cox sued the state, and a district judge initially ruled that she could go ahead with the procedure. But the state Supreme Court stepped in and sided with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s opposition to the ruling. By the time the case had played out, Cox had already left the state to get an abortion.
Even in Ohio, despite November’s abortion-related ballot amendment victory, existing laws are being applied in horrific ways: In December, Brittany Watts, a 33-year-old Black woman, was charged with felony abuse of a corpse after miscarrying into a toilet and then attempting to flush the remains of the fetus.
Abortion rights will remain a major issue in the 2024 election, and voters in more than a dozen states could decide abortion-related ballot measures next year. But the fact remains that abortion access across the country is more uneven than ever post-Dobbs, and the gap between safe haven states and abortion deserts may grow even wider.