Divisions remain a year after abortion ruling

WASHINGTON — The historic US Supreme Court about-face on abortion a year ago has created a nightmare for women seeking the procedure, leaving the whole society torn apart.

On June 24, 2022, a court reshaped by former 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 abortion, 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.

"Many people are still getting the abortions that they need," Ushma Upadhyay, a public health social scientist at the University of California San Francisco, told Agence France-Presse.

"It's just that they have to face great challenges to be able to get those abortions."

The closure of abortion clinics in about a dozen states has forced tens of thousands of women to travel elsewhere to terminate pregnancy.

During the early days of pregnancy, many women in the US use the abortion pill. But it is illegal in several states and women who acquire it over the internet or through a network of volunteers run the risk of being prosecuted.

Upadhyay said it is women "who are the poorest of the poor", mostly African Americans and Hispanics, who are being forced to carry pregnancies to term.

After the ban, many women began to seek help from other resources. Over the past year, a number of private groups have mobilized to help women obtain abortions.

Linda Prine, a New York doctor, set up a helpline in 2019 with a colleague as state-level abortion restrictions grew under Trump.

The anti-abortion movement has "made this a worse experience for the people who are needing the pills", she said.

However, the long-term outlook is uncertain. The battle is also ongoing in the political arena.

US President Joe Biden and other Democrats have made defending the procedure one of their priorities and it seems to have paid dividends in the midterm elections last year.

Republican candidates have been forced to perform a delicate balancing act, satisfying the fiercely anti-abortion religious right, a key base of support, while not alienating more moderate voters.

Agencies Via Xinhua