The right to abortion has remained under threat in the US over the past two years, according to a statement released Thursday by Amnesty International.
The rights group noted that millions of Americans have been deprived of the human right to an abortion in the two years since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark case from 1973 that established the constitutional right to abortion.
Tarah Demant, the National Director of Programs at Amnesty International USA, said that the court’s decision to overturn Roe has led to “a patchwork of devastating laws” across the country. She emphasized that abortions are now totally or near totally banned in 21 states and that abortion restrictions have created a “human rights and healthcare crisis” throughout the US.
Demant stated:
Abortion is a human right and a vital part of health care. All pregnant people, no matter who they are or where they live, must have the freedom to make their own healthcare decisions, including whether to carry a pregnancy to term, without government interference.
The statement was released just ahead of the two-year anniversary of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that overturned Roe on June 24, 2022. The court found in Dobbs that no constitutional right to abortion existed, overturning nearly 50 years of precedent on abortion rights in the US.
Since the Dobbsdecision, states across the country have introduced various forms of legislation designed to regulate access to reproductive care. Abortion is currently illegal in 14 states, including Indiana, Tennessee and Oklahoma. In May, the Texas Supreme Court rejected a challenge to its abortion laws, and the governor of Louisiana signed a bill that reclassified two abortion-inducing drugs as low-tier controlled substances.
Last week, the US Supreme Court unanimously rejected an attempt by anti-abortion advocates to restrict the availability of the abortion drug Mifepristone. The court also heard oral arguments in April for a case challenging an abortion ban in Idaho, but the court has not yet announced its decision in the case.
According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, the US is one of only four countries in the world to have “rolled back the legality of abortion” in the past 30 years. The other three countries are Nicaragua, El Salvador and Poland.
