Demise Of Roe v. Wade Will Have Ripple Effects Across The World

The Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion across the United States, will have immediate ramifications nationwide: Abortion will now be either illegal or heavily restricted in nearly half of the states.

But global political leaders and international reproductive rights groups stressed in their immediate reactions that ripple effects from the decision will be felt around the world ― and particularly in regions like Latin America and Africa, where contentious fights continue over access to abortion and other forms of reproductive health care.

Recent victories in Argentina, Colombia, Ireland, Mexico and Kenya have generated a broad sense of progress for the global reproductive rights movement, adding nations from some of the most conservative corners of the world to the list of roughly 60 countries that have expanded abortion rights over the last three decades.

The United States is now one of just a handful of countries that has drastically restricted the right to abortion over that time span, and is by far the largest and most influential nation to do so. Such a seismic defeat in a country whose legalization of abortion often served as a blueprint for success abroad will likely provide a jolt to conservative political leaders and movements that have sought to further restrict abortion access or reverse recent gains.

“The opposition will be emboldened by the Supreme Court’s decision,” said Giselle Carino, the CEO of Fòs Feminista, an international reproductive rights advocacy group. Carino, who is Argentine, helped fight for the passage of legislation legalizing abortion in her native country in 2019.

“The regression of rights here in the U.S. will affect our work on everything from comprehensive sexual education to access to abortion care to contraception,” Carino said. “It will have very difficult consequences for all of us in the Global South. It will make our work much harder.”

Heads of state from around the world began weighing in on the decision almost immediately after it was released, with the earliest reactions expressing dismay.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called it “a big step backwards” for the United States, adding that he has “always believed in a woman’s right to choose.” Protesters gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in London on Friday afternoon to demonstrate against the ruling.

Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister of Scotland, said in a tweet that the decision marked “one of the darkest days for women’s rights in my lifetime,” adding that it will “embolden anti-abortion & anti-women forces in other countries too.”

“Solidarity doesn’t feel like enough right now – but it is necessary,” Sturgeon said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the news of the decision “horrific.”

“My heart goes out to the millions of American women who are now set to lose their legal right to an abortion,” Trudeau said in a tweet. “I can’t imagine the fear and anger you are feeling right now.”

And French President Emmanuel Macron called abortion a “fundamental right for all women” that “must be protected” in a tweet that expressed “solidarity with the women whose liberties are being undermined by the Supreme Court of the United States.”

Other international lawmakers celebrated the decision, including those from countries where abortion has only recently been legalized.

“Without life, there is no liberty,” Javier Milei, a conservative Argentine congressman, tweeted Friday, with an image of the Supreme Court decision attached.

Milei is likely to challenge President Alberto Fernandez, who signed legislation legalizing abortion in Argentina in early 2021, in next year’s presidential election.

Roe’s overturn could also have immediate galvanizing effects on the anti-abortion movement in Brazil. Abortion is broadly illegal in Brazil except in limited cases of rape, maternal health or fetal anomaly, and South America’s largest country has not followed its regional counterparts in broadening access in recent years.

Far-right Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro did not mention the ruling on social media but appeared to reference it in a Friday evening tweet: “May God continue to give strength and wisdom to those who protect the innocence and future of our children, in Brazil and in the world. Good evening everyone!”

Earlier in the day, the Brazilian government published a statement online ― notably written in English ― that did not mention the decision but touted its own efforts to promote “the right to life, from conception to natural death” and protect “the rights of the unborn child.” Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo, a congressman, celebrated the ruling more directly, tweeting that the court had “ended the right to kill babies.” He also reminded his followers that his father would make two more appointments to Brazil’s Supreme Court if he wins reelection for a second term in October.

Damares Alves, the former minister of Women, Family and Health in Bolsonaro’s cabinet, also heralded the decision on Twitter, calling Friday a “day of victory for life.”

“Believe me, this will be the world trend,” Alves, who is running for a seat in the Brazilian Senate this year, tweeted. “The world wants to move forward! The world wants to leave this primitive and medieval practice behind.”

“One day,” she said in a subsequent post, “we will be ashamed of this moment in which humanity lives in which madmen fight to kill innocent children.”

A high-profile abortion case has gripped the country in recent days, after The Intercept Brazil reported on a judge’s decision to separate an 11-year-old girl from her family and place her in a shelter because she was seeking an abortion to end a pregnancy that resulted from rape. The case sparked outrage across Brazil, and the girl received an abortion this week.

Bolsonaro, who has supported legislation to totally outlaw abortion in Brazil, accused abortion rights advocates of “barbarism” in a Thursday evening tweet thread. Eduardo Bolsonaro also on Friday urged his supporters to back a state lawmaker’s push to launch a congressional investigation into the performance of abortions.

Abortion rights advocates who’ve fought for expanded rights in Brazil lamented the defeat.

“A day of great anguish for women, girls and all people in the United States,” Debora Diniz, a Brazilian feminist and human rights advocate, tweeted. “A half-century throwback.”

The fall of Roe could also complicate President Joe Biden’s efforts to support the expansion of women’s rights, reproductive freedoms and other public health initiatives around the world, said Nabeeha Kazi Hutchins, the president and CEO of PAI, a global reproductive rights group.

“We have a Biden-Harris administration that is doing everything it can to call for human rights, to call for gender equality, to diminish and reduce health inequities around the world. And at the same time, the headline is that the United States could reverse Roe v. Wade,” she told HuffPost Friday morning before the decision was handed down. “It sends a very confusing message that our own house is not in order. What right do we have to stand on the global stage and demand these additional rights?”

The decision may also only heighten global concerns about a broader decline of democracy in the United States: The few countries that have moved to further restrict abortion in recent years are all widely considered “backsliding democracies,” a status that experts applied to the U.S. for the first time in 2020.

The demise of Roe, which the majority of Americans wanted to keep in place, was hastened by a political system that incentivizes minority rule, and could easily lead to future cases that target other rights.

In his concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas said the Supreme Court should revisit decisions in major cases that legalized same-sex marriage and protected contraception access ― rights that also enjoy overwhelming popular support but could find themselves under threat from the country and the court’s conservative majority.

“I’m from Argentina, where democracy is fairly new,” Carino said. “We always have looked at the U.S. as the model for democracy, and this will make us question whether that’s the case.”

Globally, the ruling will reinforce the idea that hard-fought victories to expand abortion access cannot be taken for granted, especially in countries like Argentina, Colombia and Mexico, where opposition to those moves has at times made it difficult to improve access to legal and safe procedures.

But despite Friday’s massive loss for reproductive rights, advocates say their recent wins in major Latin American nations give them hope that they can cement those gains and earn more victories in the future, especially as Chile and other nations consider expansions of abortion access.

Those movements are also ready to support their allies in the U.S. however they can, Carino said.

“I want Americans to know that the feminist movement everywhere in the world is ready to stand with them and support them,” she told HuffPost. “It’s a long fight, but we are convinced that we will prevail, as women always do.”