Roe v. Wade & the Regression of Women’s Rights

Marking the start of Women’s History Month, and not only a day before International Women’s Day, a bill banning abortion at six weeks of pregnancy was proposed by Florida legislators on March 7th. If passed, Senate Bill 300 would have lasting destructive effects on women and anyone seeking an abortion after the six week mark.

Following the overturn of Roe v. Wade, DeSantis signed Senate Bill 146 banning abortions after 15 weeks, which went into effect on July 1, 2022. This bill replaced the previous, which banned abortions until 24 weeks of pregnancy. The cruel and unjust 15-week ban doesn’t even make exceptions for cases of incest, rape or human trafficking.

With Roe overturned, many other states believe that the 15-week ban is insufficient and Republican Governors in other states, particularly Southern States, have put even more extreme restrictions in place and pushed for more aggressive measures to limit access to reproductive and similar healthcare services.

The contradiction between Presidential Executive Orders and state legislature became particularly evident in President Biden’s Executive Order 14079, which supports securing access to reproductive and other healthcare services, opposing the state legislature banning access to reproductive healthcare and other healthcare services.

In the Executive Order: Securing Access to Reproductive and Other Healthcare Services, Biden states that eliminating these rights “will continue to have devastating implications for women’s health and public health more broadly.” Though the executive order does not explicitly change any state’s laws regarding reproductive healthcare, the order directs Biden’s Administration to take further action to “protect access to reproductive healthcare services and address the crisis facing women’s health and public health.”

Additionally, in a teleconference call held on Monday, March 13, 2023, Vice President Kamala Harris addresses the extreme measures being taken by  “extremist so-called leaders” to further limit reproductive rights. She discusses the Florida Republican state legislators who introduced a bill to ban abortions after six weeks, which is before many women even know they’re pregnant. “There are 4 million women of reproductive age in Florida, and the consequences would reach far beyond Florida.”

In concluding the press conference, Harris declares that congress must pass a bill that President Biden will sign, defending the rights of women and those seeking reproductive healthcare by putting the protections of Roe v. Wade back into federal law. “This fight will be won only when we secure reproductive rights for every person in every state.”