Roe v Wade, abortion rights and the long 1968. Not history yet
A leak from a draft decision by the US Supreme Court on abortion rights has indicated that the judges plan to overturn the legal right to abortion across the US which was won in a case known as Roe v Wade in 1972/3.
The Supreme Court has a right-wing majority thanks to Judicial appointments made by Trump. Some right-wing US States have already moved to restrict abortion rights something that has long seized the campaigning of the right and far right.
I still stick firmly to the view of my youth in the 1970s: ‘not the church, not the state, women must decide their fate’. In short it’s not up to old men and all sorts of bigots to tell young women what to do with their bodies.
The 1967 Abortion Act in the UK (not Northern Ireland) was passed in 1967 but implemented in April 1968, 54 years ago. That’s a reminder that the hard campaigning work to legalise abortion was done before 1968. However that year set in train movements including that of women’s liberation that pursued the matter and defended the 1968 Act against quite frequent attempts to roll it back in Parliament.
Richard Vinen’s book The Long 1968 was published on the 50th anniversary and he is right it was and is still long. The changes which led to that year of revolt and the changes that flowed from it are still live questions not just history.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/03/supreme-court-abortion-law-leak-roe-v-wade
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