Dobbs, 2 years later: Abortion and the 2024 election
June 24 marks two years since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade and effectively ended federal protections for the right to abortion.
USC experts are available to discuss how the landmark ruling has significantly changed reproductive rights and access across the country, and how these critical issues might shape voter behavior and decisions in the upcoming presidential election.
Contact: Nina Raffio, raffio@usc.edu or (213) 442-8464; USC Media Relations, uscnews@usc.edu or (213) 740-2215
Supreme Court blocks abortion pill ban, but experts warn legal battles are ‘far from over’
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected an effort to limit access to the abortion pill mifepristone.
“The Supreme Court gave women’s bodies a momentary reprieve from further regulation by the government by dismissing the mifepristone case on the ground that the activist doctors lacked standing. What the public needs to understand is that this is a procedural ruling and not a proclamation that the distribution of mifepristone is lawful or that birth control is protected by the Constitution,” said Aya Gruber, an expert in criminal law and procedure, violence against women and feminist legal theory.
“Plaintiffs with standing may lodge the same challenge that the FDA lacked authority to approve mifepristone. Additionally, pro-life groups are dusting off an 1800s obscenity law, the ‘Comstock Act,’ to argue for a national ban on abortion and ‘abortifacient’ drugs, equipment, and even information. This fight is far from over.”
Gruber is the Harold Medill Heimbaugh professor of law at the USC Gould School of Law.
Contact: agruber@law.usc.edu
How most Americans feel about reproductive rights
“Contrary to common speculation, American women are not the only ones in favor of policies protecting a right to choice, and there is little variation between the sexes in terms of support for abortion rights,” said Jane Junn, an expert on public opinion, political behavior, and polling methods and analysis.
“Indeed, a majority of Americans of all sexes support reproductive freedom, and the most substantial variation is by partisanship, with Republican-affiliated voters more supportive of abortion restriction. Nevertheless, even states with strong Republican majorities such as Kansas have supported policies to protect abortion rights following Dobbs. Having lost the right to choice at the federal level is a rallying point for Democratic Party voters, and will likely enhance turnout among these Americans in 2024.”
Junn is the USC Associates Chair in social sciences and professor of political science and gender and sexuality studies at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
Contact: junn@usc.edu
State ballot initiatives give voters a say on abortion post-Dobbs
In November, residents in Colorado, Maryland, South Dakota, and Florida will vote on abortion access initiatives, with six other states also advancing similar measures.
“Using referendums has some advantages over the more traditional legislative path. Most important, it allows citizens to overrule their elected representatives if they dislike the state’s policy choice,” wrote John Matsusaka, an expert on direct democracy and a professor of business, law and political science at USC in his 2022 op-ed in POLITICO, “Let the People Decide on Abortion.”
“Opinion surveys on abortion tell us that most Americans favor a compromise policy somewhere in between what the activists on both sides want — legal abortion in the early stages of pregnancy, with increasing prohibitions as the fetus becomes viable,” said Matsusaka, executive director of the Initiative and Referendum Institute at USC, which studies and tracks ballot measures and propositions throughout the country.
“If legislators take abortion policy in an extreme direction, a real risk in this age of hyper-polarized parties, initiatives and referendums let voters steer policy back toward the center.”
Contact: matsusak@marshall.usc.edu
Preserving access to emergency contraception
“The Dobbs decision has not only impacted access to abortion care, forcing many women in restrictive states to travel out-of-state or self-manage an abortion, but has also threatened access to contraception, which is critical to the prevention of pregnancy in states where legal abortion is no longer an option,” said Dima Qato, an expert in health policy, pharmacoepidemiology, drug safety and health disparities.
“Efforts to expand and protect access to emergency contraceptives—the only option safe and effective option to prevent a pregnancy after contraceptive failure, unprotected sexual intercourse or rape– should be a priority for many federal and state policy and public health officials in the post-Dobbs U.S.”
Qato is the Hygeia Centennial Chair and associate professor at the USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and a senior fellow at the USC Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics.
Contact: qato@usc.edu
Additional Experts
Annalisa Enrile is an expert on gender equity, human rights, gender-based violence, and global social justice. Enrile is a teaching professor of social work at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. Enrile has previously provided insights into how restrictive abortion policies disproportionately affect vulnerable populations of women, including victims of sex trafficking and domestic violence.
Contact: enrile@usc.edu
###
Christian Grose is an expert in American government, political institutions, and the politics of the policymaking process. Grose is an associate professor at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and academic director of the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy.
Contact: cgrose@usc.edu
###
Sofia Gruskin is director of the USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health with joint appointments at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, USC Gould School of Law, and USC Dornsife Spatial Sciences Institute.
Contact: gruskin@usc.edu
###
Brian Nguyen is an associate professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. Nguyen’s research focuses on men’s access to emergency contraception, disparities in the use of vasectomy, and men’s experiences of unintended pregnancy and abortion.
Contact: nguyenbt@usc.edu
###
Mindy Romero is a research assistant professor and the founder and director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy at the USC Price School of Public Policy. She is an expert in political sociology, political behavior, voting rights and civic engagement.
Contact: msromero@usc.edu
###
(Photo/iStock)
