Does overruling Roe discriminate against women (of colour)?

Joona Räsänen*, Claire Gothreau, Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaperJournal articleResearchpeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

On 24 July 2022, the landmark decision Roe v. Wade (1973), that secured a right to abortion for decades, was overruled by the US Supreme Court. The Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organisation severely restricts access to legal abortion care in the USA, since it will give the states the power to ban abortion. It has been claimed that overruling Roe will have disproportionate impacts on women of color and that restricting access to abortion contributes to or amounts to structural racism. In this paper, we consider whether restricting abortion access as a consequence of overruling Roe could be understood as discrimination against women of color (and women in general). We argue that banning abortion is indirectly discriminatory against women of color and directly (but neither indirectly, nor structurally) discriminatory against women in general.
Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Medical Ethics
Volume48
Issue12
Pages (from-to)952-956
Number of pages5
ISSN0306-6800
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2022

Keywords

  • Abortion - Induced
  • Feminism
  • Public Policy
  • Women's rights

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Does overruling Roe discriminate against women (of colour)?'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this