The abortion legal landscape a year after overturn of Roe v. Wade

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• Amna Nawaz:

  Tomorrow marks one year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the constitutional right to an abortion. While some states have expanded access to care, 14 states have banned abortions in nearly all cases.

  We spoke to people across the country on each side of the debate about what the past twelve months have been like, and where they go from here.

• Ellisha Olsen, College Student:

  My name is Ellisha Olsen. I am a college student and a pro-life activist.

  This year has honestly been an incredible year working in the pro-life movement, both in my state and on a national level.

• Dr. Bhavik Kumar, Family Medicine Doctor:

  My name is Dr. Bhavik Kumar. I'm a family medicine doctor in Texas, also an abortion provider, and I'm a board member with Physicians for Reproductive Health.

  Elise, 17 Years Old: My name is Elise. I am 17 years old.

• Theresa, Mother:

  I'm Theresa. I'm a mother of two young adult daughters.

  And the health care issues that are coming to the forefront in Idaho are have made us decide that were going to be moving out of state.

• Elise:

  When Roe v. Wade was overturned, I felt very concerned for everyone that can get pregnant in the United States and very angry at the government for, like, taking something away that we should always have.

• Denise Harle, Alliance Defending Freedom:

  I'm Denise Harle.

  As an attorney at Alliance Defending Freedom leading our Life Team, I work alongside states and pro-life pregnancy centers and pro-life medical professionals and other advocates and churches to help defend laws that protect life.

  I believe the biblical world view about God creating every single person in the womb with a life and a future and a hope.

• Nancy Davis, Louisiana:

  My name is Nancy Davis. I am from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I have been here my entire life.

  My initial reaction when Roe overturned was, I was very upset. You know, it's very, very upsetting that a human right, a fundamental human right, was ultimately taken away from us.

• Ellisha Olsen:

  We got the news and then we immediately rushed to the Supreme Court. And I just remember it being such an exciting time.

  There was a lot of hugging and there were tears just because this was something that we'd been working for, for so long.

• Dr. Bhavik Kumar:

  Right away, in the middle of the day, we had to stop care and say that we can no longer care for anybody. We're not sure what that would mean. We had to read the decision, talk to our attorneys.

  But, essentially, that day was when any meaningful access to abortion care in Texas stopped completely. It was very, very overwhelming and I think just heavy to sit with.

• Denise Harle:

  On the day of the Dobbs oral argument, I was out there on the steps of the Supreme Court at a rally and speaking. And at the time, I was six months pregnant with my daughter, who ended up being born in March.

  I named her Eve, which means life, in hopes that Roe would be overturned. And she was the one that I was holding and nursing when the leak came out. And it was just wonderful to be holding her also on the day that Dobbs was decided. And, to me, that was just such a symbol.

• Nancy Davis:

  Well, at 10 weeks pregnant, we received some very, very, very devastating news about our much-wanted pregnancy. Our fetus was actually diagnosed with acrania. Acrania refers to the absence of the skull and some parts of the brain.

  The doctor advised us that we should terminate. Initially, whenever we were denied for the abortion in Louisiana, the only thing I could think of was, I was carrying my baby to bury my baby. We had to travel to New York City to get the care that we needed. And this was the most difficult part of it, leaving my home, leaving my children behind and having to address this, as well as the trauma I was already dealing with.

• Dr. Bhavik Kumar:

  There's very little that I can do for somebody when I'm telling them to go to another state that they have never been to and to access this care.

  And it just feels so bewildering, especially when you know you can just help them and you have got the skills already to be able to provide them with that care. And you have done that for so long, and all of a sudden to state that you have to just go to another state and I can't do anything, it's extremely overwhelming.

  And I don't think there's any words that really carry the weight of what it really feels like to have to do that over and over again.

• Denise Harle:

  We have been very busy. We are currently working with probably a dozen to 15 different states on active litigation. We're counsel for some of them, co-counsel with some of them. We're the amicus coordinators and consultants for several states in defending their pro-life laws.

  You know, it probably will take some time for the people of America to sort of get used to this and relearn the fact that abortion was never a fundamental right.

• Nancy Davis:

  The laws that are in place, the laws that currently stand, they are controlling our lives. They are controlling other people's lives. And because of this control, it's putting our lives in danger, it's putting our lives at risk, and it's putting our lives at jeopardy.

• Dr. Bhavik Kumar:

  Health care providers like me should have these conversations with their patients, sharing facts, sharing information, talking about risks and benefits, and then we decide together what's best for that person.

  That person alone is the only person who knows what's best for them, their body, their life. And that's how it is in the rest of medicine. That's how it should be when it comes to abortion care.

• Ellisha Olsen:

  I think when thinking about the abortion laws, especially the ones that have exceptions for rape and incest, one thing that that really just reminds me of is, if we make an exception for that, my mom could have been like, I don't see value in this life.

  My birth mom was raped and conceived me, and then I was brought into my adoptive family at a very young age. The America that we want to see, where no woman is left behind and every child has a chance, isn't going to happen if people like myself and my friends don't step up.

• Theresa:

  My greatest fear about these abortion restrictions in Idaho as a mother of two young adult women, as a mother figure to a lot of their friends, is that I'm not going to be able to help them get health care when they need it.

  To have people make blanket statements about how abortion is wrong and it's murder, without having any understanding of any of the nuance of what that position looks like in the real world, is very frustrating.

• Amna Nawaz:

  President Biden marked the one-year anniversary of the fall of Roe today by signing an executive order aimed at protecting and expanding access to contraceptives.

  Rallying supporters and activists today, the president said reproductive health care is under attack.

  Joe Biden, President of the United States: The right to use birth control, did you ever think we'd be arguing about that? They're not stopping here. Make no mistake, this election is about freedom on the ballot once again.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Our White House correspondent, Laura Barron-Lopez, has been following all of this and joins me here.

  Laura, good to see you.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Good to be here.

• Amna Nawaz:

  So tell us more about the executive order President Biden signed today. What exactly does it do?

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  So some of our viewers will remember that when the Dobbs decision came down, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a concurring opinion.

  And in it, he said that the Supreme Court should reconsider the 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut decision that established the right to privacy to use contraceptives. So that's how the White House has framed this announcement, which is to protect access to that.

  President Biden is directing agencies to consider new guidances and rules that would do a number of things. First, they would ensure private insurance covers all forms of contraception. They would expand access to affordable, over-the-counter and emergency options of contraception, reduce barriers to access for Medicare and Medicaid recipients.

  And it would also increase availability generally at federally supported health care clinics. So President Biden has, since his Senate days, along with the help of his sister, really framed access to contraception and access to abortion as a fundamental right to privacy.

• Amna Nawaz:

  As you know, it's in the year since Roe was overturned, President Biden, his administration, they have taken a number of steps, right?

  Where does today's executive action — or executive order, rather, fit into all of those other steps?

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Today's executive action is the third one that President Biden has issued since the Dobbs decision last year, and all three have been on reproductive health care access.

  The first came July 8, 2022. That was about two weeks after the Dobbs decision. It expanded access to abortion pills and encouraged free legal representation for doctors and patients. The second one was on August 3 of last year, and that allowed assistance for women traveling out of state for health care and supported providers navigating these new restrictions.

  In addition to that, Amna, the Justice Department is fighting in the courts to protect access to abortion care. Most notably, you have covered this extensively, the ongoing case around mifepristone, which is abortion medication. The White House this week expressed a lot of confidence in their ability to win that case.

• Amna Nawaz:

  So, Laura, back in 2022, in the midterm elections, we saw how abortion access, abortion rights were a real motivating, mobilizing force for Democratic voters in particular.

  When you talk to sources on the Biden campaign today, do they think this is going to be the same story in '24?

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  The short answer is yes.

  So, in the lead-up to this one-year anniversary, the White House held multiple events, talked to reporters throughout the week. Neera Tanden, the domestic policy adviser for the White House, spoke to reporters, and I was there. And she said the White House does not see this issue dissipating at all.

  Some of that confidence comes from events like today, the Faith and Freedom Coalition event, where a number of GOP candidates repeatedly said over and over again that they were happy with the Dobbs decision and that they would support some form of a national ban to abortion.

  I also spoke to the campaign today, and they told me that they're going to be highlighting voices like some of the ones we just heard, like Nancy, who said that she had to leave Louisiana and go to New York to get health care. The campaign also told me to expect Vice President Kamala Harris to be really the leading voice. They expect her to be out there and be the most prolific campaigner on this issue.

  Compare — they said President Biden will be talking about it, but that she is going to be the leader on it.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Laura Barron-Lopez, thank you for your reporting. Good to see you.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Thank you.