AMERICA WITHOUT ROE

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The Supreme Court, which is expected to rule in June, may refrain from overturning Roe, or may craft a compromise in which abortions early in pregnancy remain protected. But many legal experts who watched the oral arguments say it is likely that Roe will be substantially weakened.

What an America Without Roe Would Look Like

Legal abortions would fall, particularly among poor women in the South and Midwest, and out-of-state travel and abortion pills would play a bigger role

By Claire Cain Miller and Margot Sanger-Katz

Published Dec. 5, 2021Updated May 3, 2022, 5:32 a.m. ET

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(We are republishing this in light of a leaked draft opinion in which the Supreme Court privately voted to strike down Roe v. Wade, obtained by Politico and published Monday night.)

"Last week’s Supreme Court arguments on a Mississippi abortion law raised the prospect of a return to a time half a century ago — when the procedure was illegal across most of the United States and women, perilously, tried to end pregnancies on their own or sought back-alley abortions.

If the court decides to reverse or weaken the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, it will usher in a somewhat different era. Abortion would remain legal in more than half of states, but not in a wide swath of the Midwest and the South.

Legislatures in 22 states would almost certainly move to ban or substantially restrict access to abortion. Some women would be able to travel out of state for the procedure. Others would have access to pills, in some cases illicit, which now offer a relatively safe and difficult-to-police home alternative to clinics.

Many women, disproportionately those who are poor, would unwillingly carry their babies to term and rely on a social safety net that is thinner than in most other rich nations, and thinner in some states than in others.

In effect, the United States without Roe would look very different for different people. For women in Democratic states and women elsewhere who have the means to travel to a clinic, abortion would still be accessible. For poor women in many Republican states, traveling to other states for in-clinic abortions could be prohibitively challenging. . ."

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