The World Reacts to the Overturning of Roe v. Wade

When news filtered in over the weekend that the US Supreme Court had upended the landmark Roe v Wade case from nearly 50 years ago, most were in a state of shock. Many of us could simply watch on from afar, scrolling through our social media feeds as those in the United States granted us a look into life on the ground; one in which women were afforded less rights than guns. Protests were quick to take place around the nation and many shared resources of organisations in need of finances and urgent help, but even so, all of us felt a collective agony and anguish, a feeling of despair that if such an imperative law could be overturned, what else could be taken from us next? The very thought is terrifying. 

Under state restrictions, “a woman will have to bear her rapist’s child or a young girl her father’s – no matter if doing so will destroy her life,” wrote the three liberal justices who dissented. The new ruling means that from the very moment of fertilisation, a woman has no rights to speak of. At least 26 states are expected to ban abortion immediately or as soon as practicable. 

Though there were many who celebrated the news, most could only think of the ramifications it would have on reproductive rights and the livelihoods of women and their autonomy. Not surprisingly, the backlash to the upending of Roe v Wade was swift. President Joe Biden called the ruling a “tragic error” and the Republicans celebrating it “wrong, extreme and out of touch.” Conservative justice Clarence Thomas revealed the new focus of the Supreme Court, offering a concurring opinion that expressed key rights like same-sex marriage and access to contraception could now be the next target of the rightwing court. 

Biden said the court had pointed America down “an extreme and dangerous path.” He added, “Justice Thomas said as much today. He explicitly called to reconsider the right of marriage equality. The right of couples to make their choices on contraception. This is an extreme and dangerous path the court has now taken us on.”

Protests took place outside the courthouse and in cities across the US after the decision was announced. Democratic-run states and cities have vowed to uphold abortion rights and welcome people from neighbouring states in which they are banned, while other district attorneys have pledged not to prosecute people for abortions even if new laws criminalise the procedure. 

As Dr Iffath A Hoskins, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, told The Guardian, “Today’s decision is a direct blow to bodily autonomy, reproductive health, patient safety and health equity in the United States. The principle of shared decision-making is founded on respect for people’s expertise in their own bodies and lives and clinicians’ expertise in science and medicine.”

Dr Hoskins added, “There is no room within the sanctuary of the patient-physician relationship for individual lawmakers who wish to impose their personal religious or ideological views on others.”

Across the world, the response to the overruling was immediate. In Ireland, where courts only recently moved to decriminalise abortion, many were passionate in their response. Dr Jennifer Cassidy, a university lecturer who was in Dublin in 2018 when crowds celebrated the vote to decriminalise abortion by the Republic of Ireland, wrote on Twitter: “The world continues to watch America become unrecognisable.”

UN Secretary General spokesperson Stephane Dujarric cemented the organisation’s stance on abortion as a fundamental human right: “That sexual and reproductive health and rights are the foundation of a life of choice, empowerment and equality for the world’s women and girls…It’s also important to note that restricting access to abortion does not prevent people from seeking abortion; it only makes it more deadly.” This comes after the United Nations Population Fund reveals some 45 per cent of all abortions around the world are unsafe, making it a leading cause of maternal death. 

Similarly, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called the ruling a “major setback.”

“Access to safe, legal and effective abortion is firmly rooted in international human rights law and is at the core of women and girls’ autonomy and ability to make their own choices about their bodies and lives, free of discrimination, violence and coercion,” Bachelet said. “This decision strips such autonomy from millions of women in the U.S., in particular those with low incomes and those belonging to racial and ethnic minorities, to the detriment of their fundamental rights.”

In France, French President Emmanuel Macron said in a tweet translated to English: “Abortion is a fundamental right for all women. It must be protected. I express my solidarity with the women whose freedoms are today challenged by the Supreme Court of the United States of America.”

And in New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern powerfully called the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade “incredibly upsetting.” She added, “Watching the removal of a woman’s fundamental right to make decisions over their own body is incredibly upsetting. Here in New Zealand we recently legislated to decriminalise abortion and treat it as a health rather than criminal issue.”

Ardern continued: “That change was grounded in the fundamental belief that it’s a woman’s right to choose. People are absolutely entitled to have deeply held convictions on this issue. But those personal beliefs should never rob another from making their own decisions. To see that principle now lost in the United States feels like a loss for women everywhere. When there are so many issues to tackle, so many challenges that face woman and girls, we need progress, not to fight the same fights and move backwards.”