Europeans are overwhelmingly pro-choice, but that doesn’t mean women’s rights are safe.
Roe v Wade was overturned in the US by a court, not by voters. The same happened in Poland – and it could happen again.
bortion access is about to be severely curtailed or cut off for millions of women in the United States following the supreme court’s decision to abolish the constitutional protections for the termination of pregnancy established by the landmark Roe v Wade case 50 years ago.
The decision allows state legislatures to ban abortion and half are now likely to limit access.
Despite the condemnation from many European leaders, not all EU states have decriminalised abortion. Malta retains a total ban. And in Poland, an already restrictive law was made draconian in 2020. Medical personnel now face lengthy prison sentences for providing or procuring an abortion and women have died as a result.
We Americans are dancing on the Titanic. Our iceberg is not far awayFrancine ProseRead more
It should be remembered, however, that in both the US and Poland, courts of law, not democratic majorities, made the decisions. What has happened in the US is the culmination of years of efforts by US activists to see more socially conservative judges appointed.
In Poland, the seismic change in abortion law also came after a court ruling. The conservative Law and Justice government had in 2016 attempted to push through legislation, but backed down in the face of massive street protests. Instead, it packed the constitutional tribunal and other courts with its appointees. In 2020, the tribunal duly ruled that foetal defects were no longer a justification for abortion, limiting abortion access to cases of verified rape and incest.
This judicial activism is no accident. Democratic majorities in most countries support the right to abortion. Independent judicial courts are not accountable to majorities, however. As a result, it is the judiciary that can often enact the restrictions that conservatives seek.
Majorities across Europe favour abortion rights. This is also the case in the US, where recent polls show more than 60% of respondents stating that abortion should be legal in most cases. In Poland, 66% of respondents in 2020 said they favoured legal abortion in the first trimester. Only one in 10 Poles backs the 2020 restrictions.