Turning rights into legal wrongs: more states to ban abortion as a result of the Roe V Wade overturning.

It’s been over 2 months since the US supreme court overturned decades of precedent regarding the abortion right. More than a dozen states had laws prepared to instantly prohibit abortion as soon as the right was retracted. Other states were momentarily slowed down by the litigation red tape, but are expected to ban the procedure as soon as possible. One of these states is Tennessee, where a law banning all abortions with no exception for incest, rape or medical emergencies is expected to pass shortly. Abortion rights groups that are continuing to express their outrage over the situation, this many organizations claim that many state constitutions offer the guarantee of abortion rights. Despite this, abortion bans are spreading like wildfire throughout the US with states such as Indiana, Texas Idaho and North Dakota implementing total bans of the procedure.

Not only are the individual states banning in-state abortion, but some states have also gone as far as presenting legislation to prevent people of seek abortion in other states. Elisabeth Smith, advocacy director with the Center for Reproductive Rights, noted that “I think it’s important to talk about the fact that we will also likely see novel criminal penalties for abortion providers and helpers, and some states trying to prevent people from crossing state lines,”. On the other side of this coin, there are groups that increasingly are trying to facilitate abortion access even for people in the states which have banned the procedure. Out-of-state travel options and pills for at-home abortions are being promoted as safe alternatives to help combat the effects of this right being overturned.

The country remains divided as ever in this moral dilemma as the effects of this historical overturning of rights continue to unfold. Only time will tell what the ultimate effects will be.