OUR ABORTION STORIES

With abortion rights under attack, ELLE brought together five members of Congress perhaps most qualified to discuss the issue— because they’ve been there themselves.

- MADISON FELLER AND ROSE MINUTAGLIO

It’s been nearly 50 years since the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade established the constitutional right to an abortion in the United States. Ever since, that right has been threatened— now more so than ever. In the past decade alone, some states have passed a record number of abortion restrictions, including imposing patient waiting periods, burdening clinics with costly and medically unnecessary requirements aimed at shutting them down, and today’s policy du jour among Republicans: banning abortions at various points pre-viability—as early as six weeks, before most people even know they are pregnant.

In response, some Democratic members of Congress are pushing to repeal the Hyde Amendment, which bars the use of federal funds for abortion care in most cases, and to enact the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would create a federal right to access abortion care. But neither is expected to make progress before this summer, when the Supreme Court is poised to deliver a decision on the constitutionality of a 2018 Mississippi state law banning FOR ABORTION most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The conservative Court is expected to uphold the Mississippi law, TRANS NB GNO ending nearly a half century of Roe v. PEOPLE HAVE Wade precedent by opening the door ABORTIONS for states to potentially pass legislation that bans abortion at virtually all stages of pregnancy.