The long fight over abortion rights in the United States

Fifty years ago, the US Supreme Court's landmark Roe v Wade ruling guaranteed access to abortion throughout the United States - a decision that was reversed last summer. ALLISON MCKIBBAN charts the complex, often contradictory currents that have shaped women's reproductive rights in America

-  ALLISON MCKIBBAN

Emotive topic Protesters march through Washington DC in support of abortion rights and birth control, March 1986. The issue has long prompted strong feelings in the United States on both sides of the argument

The 2022 US midterm elections were long expected to be a referendum on Joe Biden's time as president and the nation's inflation-ridden economy, but then came a summer surprise: the US Supreme Court returned a precedent shattering decision that the federal constitution does not protect a right to abortion. Overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade opinion, the court granted each state the power to regulate access to abortion.

Suddenly, the issue - at times dismissed as politically unviable by both Democrats and Republicans - returned to the ballot with fervour. According to US non-profit organisation the Kaiser Family Foundation, nearly 40 percent of poll-goers reported the court's ruling had a "major impact" on their decision to vote, contributing to the Democratic party's stronger than expected performance.

Protest group Anti-abortion demonstrators gather outside the Georgia State Capitol building in Atlanta, January 1985

Fifty years have passed since the Supreme Court first upheld a woman's constitutional right to abortion in Roe v Wade. Yet the recent reversal, and ensuing pushback, highlights how central it remains to the American political psyche. Indeed, although it is often elevated as the singular moment of abortion history in the United States, the case - and its place in the nation's broader medical, racial and social histories  also provides overlooked insights into currents that still influence debates around the subject today.