AMID THE TUMULT surrounding the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the June 24 ruling that ended Roe v. Wade, one curious detail went largely overlooked. Nestled among Justice Samuel Alito's arguments laying waste to nearly 50 years of abortion precedent was an unassuming footnote documenting a narrative advanced in amicus briefs submitted to the high court. These "friend of the court" briefs, Alito explained, "present arguments about the motives" of people and groups favoring "liberal access to abortion," namely "that some such supporters have been motivated by a desire to suppress the size of the African American population."
Portraying abortion as a tool of racial genocide is not a bridge too far, Alito insisted: "It is beyond dispute that Roe has had that demographic effect," given that a "highly disproportionate percentage of aborted fetuses are Black." He also cited Justice Clarence Thomas' concurring opinion in 2019's Box v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, Inc., a challenge to an Indiana law that prohibited abortions undertaken for reasons of race or sex selection, or nonlethal fetal anomalies. The justices, Thomas included, had deferred consideration of such "reason bans" for another day, but Thomas wanted it on the record that the court ultimately would have "to confront the constitutionality of laws like Indiana's," which reflected a "compelling interest in preventing abortion from becoming a tool of modern-day eugenics."
This story is from the September/October 2022 edition of Mother Jones.
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This story is from the September/October 2022 edition of Mother Jones.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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In the Name of the Mother - How Shyamala Gopalan Harris raised a presidential contender
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