So it looks like Roe v. Wade will be overturned in America. Most readers in Europe don’t know what it is and are missing out. The media ‘expert-Americanist’ (i.e. someone who lives in America and knows nothing) explains in an insider’s way that ‘other civil liberties’ are under threat, the squares are full of aggressive demonstrators and the prevailing atmosphere is as if arrests or the blocking of inconvenient servers were to begin tonight. On the other hand, the conservatives are cheering as if they have won something. They haven’t won anything.
On the other hand, the conservatives are cheering as if they have won something. They haven’t won anything.
In practice, this means that there will be a similar situation with regard to abortion as in Europe, or a little looser. Each state will have different regulations, and each pregnant woman will be able to choose where to go for the procedure (if the conditions in her own state do not suit her). It will be even freer in that in many American states it is possible to abort a baby up to the end of the ninth month or even during labour, which is unthinkable in Europe.
In terms of overall trends, this will make no difference (the number of abortions has halved in a generation and will continue to fall) and will make no difference to individual pregnant women. However, many non-profits and professional activists are able to report on their activities and raise money. If only they would do something for those pregnant girls.
