Roe vs Wade: aftermath?

It very much depends on which state you live in. Some states didn't see much change, because they already have their own laws guaranteeing access to abortion and women's healthcare in general.

But a lot has changed in those other states. In some states, laws that were on the books pre-Roe but were unenforceable afterwards sprung back into force overnight.

I think it's the states that enacted new laws afterwards, though, that are particularly harsh and cruel. These laws can be extremely punitive. If a woman has a pregnancy with no hope but there is still technically a heartbeat, the provider can suffer serious consequences for even mentioning abortion as an alternative.

I recall reading about one doctor who could only tell patients "You might want to take a trip to help deal with this devastating news. I hear California or Colorado might be nice this time of year", and hope they pick up on the hint.

I live in a state that agreed to be a sanctuary state to people coming here for treatment. Border towns' Planned Parenthoods are overrun with people seeking care and in-town waits for routine care are pushed farther out than usual due to the increase in patients. Colleges are having less students attend in red states and entire hospitals have shut down their birthing and NICU departments in some places that have banned abortion. Even in my safe state I fear that nothing is truly protected from federal interference. Fortunately my state government has a background of saying "fuck you" to some federal policies like marijuana legalization and immigrant reforms that were put into place by Trump. But like many people in a blue state I'm getting priced out of where I live, and the options for affordable alternatives has shrunk considerably.

The loss of RvW has meant that certain states have essentially outlawed all abortions, and I believe others have tightened restrictions beyond what they would have been allowed to before, while still technically allowing them under the right conditions. Practically what that means is many many people now have to travel out of state (sometimes across multiple states to the nearest abortion friendly state) in order to access safe abortions. Unfortunately some states (Texas and maybe others) have even outlawed going to a legal state for an abortion. Texas has also passed a law that allows for regular people to "report" their neighbors if they suspect they've gotten an abortion.

Even though in many places it's still legal to travel to another state for an abortion, for poorer people this is often entirely cost prohibitive because many southern states are completely surrounded by anti-abortion states. The distant travel problem is further exasperated by our countries general lack of public transportation (trains and buses are more expensive here and have very limited routes). Add to that again the fact that the vast majority of our work force, especially low paid workers, have none or very little paid sick leave.

Essentially the wealthy in most of the country can still access safe abortion by taking a short vacation to a nearby state, whereas poorer folks might find it extremely difficult or impossible to afford the necessary travel, let alone the cost of our notoriously expensive healthcare.

There was an article I saw on here the other day titled something like "For my trans kid, there are only 18 states in the US". While technically not as dire for abortion access and women's healthcare, the same mantra holds true for it.

Well it's all just shitty and confusing because each state has its own laws that are constantly being activated, passed by state congress, and temporarily or permanently being struck down by state or federal judges and maybe reinstated by other judges higher up. It's quite hard to keep track of for the average person.

Many women are refusing to take jobs in anti-abortion states. It is generally recognized that states can't prevent people from traveling to receive medical care, but that hasn't stopped the craziest republicans from trying to pass unconstitutional laws.

Abortion by medication still hasn't been successfully outlawed, so that is a possible option almost everywhere if you get telehealth services. However a judge in Florida tried to revoke a popular drug's FDA (food & drug administration) approval unilaterally which was a blatant power grab.

There have been an increase of news stories about women forced to endure terrible denials of medical care. All national elections since the Roe V Wade overturning have seen republicans underperform. Especially if there is an abortion rights referendum (direct democracy) on the ballot. But not all states allow referendums, and even if they do, a petition is required first. Most states are relatively close to another state where abortion is allowed, but not everyone can afford to travel.

In some states, hospitals or women's health centers close altogether because of the unclear regulatory environment makes it hard to know what will get them in trouble. I see a story like that every month or two.

My wife had her tubes tied. It was a point of contention for a while and her doctor always said no as she was still strongly within child bearing age. As soon as RvW was overturned, her obgyn said yes without hesitationnand 45 days later it was done.

I understand her reasons, and I respect them, even if there is some sadness and in part mourning on my end as it's a potential loss of something that might have ever happened. But the fact is, I have a child, and they were tough to raise. My wife doesn't want to do that again, even if she had her own child with me.

It’s a slow decline. While many states has laws on the books or trigger laws going into effect on reversal, a good number are held up in litigation on state law / constitutional issues (especially some states that passed healthcare freedom laws after Obamacare).

In other areas, networks are continuing to operate, sending pills to women in need or transporting women across state lines to legal states.

Some states have also had citizen referendums to protect abortion. In response, some are pushing laws to restrict citizens’ ability to pass referendums (see Arkansas and Ohio)

All and all, Republicans are trying to clap down, but there has been some resistance.

It varies from state to state. Many red states have restricted it or banned it completely while blue states have either left it alone or taken action to enshrine it as a right in their constitutions. The real worry comes if Republicans take the trifecta of federal government at any point they could conceivably ban it outright nationwide, but they would get destroyed in the next election if they do so. Their actions thus far have energized young voters and made some longtime Republican voters question their allegiance to the party. It has definitely hurt them in some elections already. The election in ‘22 was supposed to be a “red wave” but they only barely took the House as opposed to the large gains in both houses they were expecting.

I was arguing with a dude a few weeks ago about it because he wanted data from post-Dobbs to confirm that deaths were rising. I first said it was fucking demented that he needed to see that in order to be persuaded that abortions save lives, but second, I already demonstrated that maternal death rates dropped significantly following the original passing of Roe...so, just all-out bad faith

Anyway, I was doing some digging and came across this article from Pew Research covering shifts in viewpoints you might find interesting: https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/04/26/nearly-a-year-after-roes-demise-americans-views-of-abortion-access-increasingly-vary-by-where-they-live/

I think we'll still have to wait for raw data to be gathered and presented. It's been about a year now, so I hope we can see some research soon. I'm in a state that had trigger laws, but am less than an hour from the border of another state that voted to affirm abortion rights in their constitution.