The United States supreme court has overturned Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 decision which has protected a pregnant person's liberty to choose to have an abortion for almost 50 years. Individual states in the US will now be allowed to ban abortion, and the dissolution of this protective measure brings with it grave fears for bodily autonomy for women and people with uteruses – not only in the US, but across the world.
Rallies are being organised across Australia this weekend in solidarity with abortion rights protesters in the US, to demand free, safe and legal abortion access and protection. In Melbourne, the rally will congregate outside the State Library on Saturday, July 2 at noon, and you can find out more on the Facebook event page.
While these protests are intended as a show of support for those impacted in the US, the issues at hand also hit close to home. Abortion was only decriminalised in New South Wales in October 2019, and access to abortion was only fully decriminalised in all jurisdictions in Australia in 2021, with South Australia being the last to change its laws. However, non-legal barriers remain to abortion access across the country, including cost, geography and “residual stigma". There are fears that what is happening in the States could have an influence here.
