Mid-term elections in the United States of America are often seen as a referendum on the incumbent president halfway through his term. But in the elections on November 8, a more direct concern was on the ballot: anger and fear over the erosion of reproductive rights for women five months after the US Supreme Court struck down Roe versus Wade, a 1973 judgment that guaranteed abortion rights nationally. California and Vermont, Democratic Party bastions, voted for measures that strengthen abortion rights in their state Constitutions. Voters in Michigan, a swing state, did the same. In Republican-leaning Montana and Kentucky, voters rejected ballot proposals that aimed to limit the reproductive rights of women. Pro-abortion rights candidates won key elections to the posts of governors and to the Congress. These results add to evidence — also indicated in multiple voter surveys — that the Supreme Court’s decision was out of sync with the broad national mood.
The vote in the US also offers pointers to the future of the abortion debate globally. Recent years have seen traditionally conservative nations in Latin America and Africa embrace increasingly liberal laws on abortion. The sheer weight of evidence showing how restrictive reproductive laws force women to undertake risky, clandestine abortions, leading to high mortality rates, is hard to ignore. Mexico, Argentina and Colombia have all decriminalised abortion over the past two years. Sierra Leone is moving in that direction. Ireland, a bastion of conservative Catholicism, allowed abortion up to 12 weeks of gestation after a 2018 referendum. Meanwhile, in India, the Supreme Court has steadily strengthened the abortion rights regime. In September, the court not only upheld the right to abortion for unmarried women but also made clear that it would place the lived experiences of women front and centre while deciding on the subject. The court indicated that it would support abortion rights for victims of marital rape — otherwise not punishable in India. But India’s lawmakers need to do more. Legally, abortion is still banned in India except under specific circumstances. The onus is on women and abortion providers to prove that they meet those conditions. Research shows that this hurts women from disadvantaged backgrounds. Unlike in the US, India’s Supreme Court has shown the way. Parliament must now change the law to bring it into the 21st century.
