VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: What’s next for abortion access after the election?
Dillon Brendle: Last Tuesday’s election will have lasting impacts on the direction of the United States across many issues, but one of the topics getting the most attention is abortion access. In New York Proposition 1 cemented access to abortion at the state level– while nationally many pro-life advocates were more successful than they’ve ever been since the overturning of Roe v Wade. But what will come next, remains up for debate.
Anne LeBlanc: No, I don’t think there’s gonna be a national ban, I don’t think there’s the votes for it.
Margaret Susan Thompson: There may, down the road, be attempts to produce a national ban. Donald Trump has said that’s not what he’s after.
Brendle: Regardless of whether a national abortion ban will ever happen, since Tuesday, sales of abortion pills are surging and searches for websites like Plan C, that link women to resources, are on the rise in red and blue states.
Thompson: I can’t say that I blame people for thinking about what their options are.
Brendle: Thompson, a women’s history and political science Professor at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University says legal or not, abortions won’t go away.
Thompson: Before Roe, and I was around, before Roe abortions happened a lot. They were not legal. Some were safer than others, and that was largely a monetary thing.
Brendle: Others like New York state right to life chair Anne LeBlanc say Prop 1 will have unintended consequences and abortion’s not that simple.
LeBlanc: I take displays out to public places, and I just couldn’t count the number of women who said, well, you know, when I was 16, I’ve never told anybody this. But when I was 16, I had an abortion. And I’ve had nightmares ever since. Well, it’s not as inconsequential as getting a tooth pulled.
Brendle: With Republicans eyeing control of all three branches of federal government, Thompson says attempts at restrictions are coming.
Thompson: I think there will be attempts. I think we heard in the Dobbs decision and his concurring opinion, Justice Thomas, talk about this. We don’t know where the line will be drawn. That’s part of the fear. It’s also fear of the unknown. And it sounds like fearmongering, but I’m not sure it is.
Brendle: LeBlanc says since the passing of Proposition One, pro-life groups will have to focus on education and hope one day minds change in New York.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – Tuesday’s election will have lasting impacts on the direction of the United States across many issues, but one of the topics getting the most attention is abortion access. In New York, Proposition 1 cemented access to abortion at the state level, while nationally many anti-abortion advocates were more successful than they’ve ever been since the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“There may, down the road, be attempts to produce a national ban,” Margaret Susan Thompson, a women’s history and political science professor at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University said. “Donald Trump has said that’s not what he’s after.”
“I don’t think there’s gonna be a national ban, I don’t think there’s the votes for it,” Anne LeBlanc the chair for New York state Right to Life said.
Regardless of whether a national abortion ban will ever happen, since Tuesday, sales of abortion pills are surging and searches for websites like Plan C, which link women to resources, are on the rise in red and blue states.
“I can’t say that I blame people for thinking about what their options are,” Thompson said.
Thompson believes legal or not, abortions won’t go away entirely.
“Before Roe, and I was around, abortions happened a lot,” Thompson said. “They were not legal. Some were safer than others, and that was largely a monetary thing. When I was in college, abortion was illegal, and I was approached on several occasions, where somebody would say to me, do you have a spare $5? You would give it to them knowing that what they were doing was collecting money for a friend, maybe themselves, to get an abortion.”
“There were underground networks of women who helped other women to find access to abortion,” Thompson said. “These were women who knew that what they were doing was illegal and were willing, in effect, to commit an act of civil disobedience or series of acts of civil disobedience in order to help women secure abortions.”
LeBlanc knows fighting against abortion is an uphill battle in the empire state, but NYSRTL fought change, partly, because of vagueness in the proposition’s wording.
“It’s going to have all sorts of unintended consequences,” LeBlanc said. “And that’s what we worry about. You can’t make the abortion issue much worse, but you can do all sorts of things that make it harder for parents to help their children.”
LeBlanc also questions what the ballot initiative meant by national origin. She’s concerned it could provide legal protections to illegal immigrants.
Looking past Prop 1, LeBlanc is concerned people don’t take the choice of abortion seriously enough.
“I take displays out to public places, and I just couldn’t count the number of women who said, ‘I’ve never told anybody this, but when I was 16 I had an abortion, and I’ve had nightmares ever since,’” LeBlanc said. “It’s not as inconsequential as getting a tooth pulled.”
With Republicans eyeing control of all three branches of the federal government, attempts to restrict access to reproductive care are likely coming.
“I think there will be attempts,” Thompson said. “We don’t know where the line will be drawn, that’s part of the fear. It sounds like fearmongering, but I’m not sure it is.”
LeBlanc said since the passing of Proposition One, anti-abortion groups will have to focus on education and hope one day minds change in New York.