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The historic US Supreme Court about face on abortion a year ago has created a nightmare for women seeking the procedure, a legal morass for the courts and a challenge for the Republican Party.
On June 24, 2022, a court reshaped by Republican president Donald Trump overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion and left it up to each state to decide.
That same day, several conservative states moved to ban the procedure, forcing clinics to hastily shut down or move to places where they could still operate.
Since then, the United States is divided. Some 20 states, mostly in the south and Midwest, have prohibited abortion outright or severely restricted access while others, mainly on the coasts, have moved to protect it.
The nationwide impact, in terms of sheer numbers, remains limited.
According to a study by the Society of Family Planning, the average number of monthly abortions nationwide between July 2022 and March 2023 was 79,031, 3.3 percent fewer than in April and May 2022, when an average of 81,730 abortions a month were performed.
“Many people are still getting the abortions that they need,” said Ushma Upadhyay, a public health social scientist at the University of California, San Francisco, and a co-author of the study.
“It’s just that they have to face great challenges to be able to get those abortions,” Upadhyay told AFP.
The closure of abortion clinics in about a dozen states has forced tens of thousands of women to travel elsewhere to terminate a pregnancy.
Beyond the financial burden, getting days off from work or explaining an absence to one’s family is not always easy.
Logistical problems can delay the procedure further into a pregnancy, having a psychological impact, not to mention health risks.
‘Russian roulette’
Anna Zargarian, a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed in Texas, recounted her harrowing experience after her water broke at 19 weeks, far…
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