Right-wing politicians and ultraconservative religious groups have been extremely disturbed by the ruling, but over the span of the last 50 years, America – as most of the world – has largely moved on. For five decades, numerous attempts to overturn Roe vs Wade had been unsuccessful, and the issue appeared to be a closed matter for most of society.

It was even more so because the number of abortions in the US has been falling – according to an online article by Pew Research Centre, both US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and a global research group Guttmacher Institute (GI), the number of abortions peaked in 1990 and has been falling ever since.

Furthermore, GI was quoted in an article written by Austin American Statesman, that “after 1975, mortality due to legally induced abortion also fell — from more than three deaths per 100,000 abortions in 1975 to about one in 1976 and even fewer thereafter”.

All of the above supported the general feeling that Roe vs Wade was there to remain – there was little reason to argue about something that not only was settled but also fading.

In reality, the debate was far from over because a large number of Supreme Court nominations, in recent years, have fallen into the hands of Republican presidents. Especially lucky was Donald J. Trump, who during his one term in office, nominated as many as three justices. In effect, despite Republicans winning the Oval Office only three times out of the last eight elections – and considering the longest-serving Justice was appointed by Bill Clinton – currently six out of nine Supreme Court justices are appointees of Republican presidents.

The news broke on the 2nd of May, 2022, when the American edition of POLITICO magazine published a leaked draft of the ruling. Penned by Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito, the document outlined the intention of a majority of Supreme Court justices to overturn Roe vs Wade, and give state legislators the right to decide if and under what circumstances termination of pregnancy would be legal.

The Supreme Court consists of nine justices, and the five-strong majority which voted for Roe vs Wade to be overturned, includes four men (Samuel A. Alito, Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch), and only one woman (Amy Coney Barrett). In reserve, they have Chief Justice John G. Roberts, who, according to POLITICO, did not vote, but his radically conservative views are publicly known. All of them had been appointed by Republicans.

The minority voting against the decision consisted of two women (Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan) and one man (Stephen Breyer) – all of whom were appointed by Democrats.

Effectively, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, which removed the right for abortion in the US was done by a group which is 80 percent male, 80 percent white and 100 percent in their 50s, or older. The societal group which is going to be affected by the change, is the complete opposite: 100 percent female, unproportionately non-white, not priviledged, and predominantly aged between 16 and 40, mostly in their 20s and 30s.

The group of mostly middle-aged men with small, or even nonexistent medical knowledge, should not be the ones that have the power to decide if a girl or a woman should have an abortion or not. They are in no position to decide – in 2022, reproductive rights should not be determined by middle aged white men, like it was back in 1950. Hence, how non-profit abortion rights organization, Planned Parenthood, rallies poignantly called it a “Bans Off Our Bodies”.

In 1973, the Supreme Court of Justice decided that it was unconstitutional to impose restrictions on abortion before the fetus is viable. What the Supreme Court is preparing is a debate which is a reverse back to the past – and seems not to acknowledge anything that has changed over the last 50 years.

This is going to be extremely hard in case of rape survivors. If a woman cannot have a desired abortion, the child will be a product of hatred, and the mother will bear catastrophic consequences which enslavement in patriarchal world causes on their physical and mental health. Abortion saved women from forced motherhood, which is “female enslavement” – as Luna Hernandez, an organizer of one of the rallies in defence of Roe vs Wade, correctly put it into words shown in an article by The Guardian .

Those behind abortion bans claim they are protecting youth from corruption. Were they truly committed to protecting the young generation from the experience of abortion, rape, and abuse, they would invest in raising the education level, would stand behind programmes aimed at empowering young people through knowledge which helps them throughout their whole life, and would not fight those who try to help young people to understand the cruciality of protection and the notion of sexual health. One cannot be forced to learn to love oneself, or to make good and safe choices in life – this is achieved through partnership and education, not by authoritarian denial of rights.