Rights After Roe: What Girls Are Asking and What Role Models are Saying

Things can be shocking, even if they are not a surprise.

Due to a leaked draft opinion we knew what was coming. But the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade is still stunning - one of the few times the Supreme Court has invalidated an earlier decision declaring a constitutional right and, according to legal scholars, the only time it has revoked a right that had considerable public support. How much support? An NPR/Marist poll taken right after the leak noted that 64% of Americans did not want to see Roe overturned, and CBS polling today reports that 59% of Americans – including 67% of the nation’s women - disapprove of the Court's decision.

With fallout from Friday's decision hitting the next generation – one that has come of age under the security of Roe’s protection – particularly hard, questions from young women in high school and college have been flooding in to Être on all channels with lightning speed:

Where do things stand today? Can we reverse this? Will this change the health care I have access to in college? How does Roe v. Wade further inequities that minority and POC women have been facing already? Now that Roe is overturned, what other landmark Supreme Court decisions do we have to worry about? What steps should young women be taking to ensure that our rights are being protected  - is there anything else that we can and should be doing?

Heartbreaking questions, and the answers float in uncharted waters. We broke them down and looked to our mentors for answers:

Where do things stand TODAY?

As of this morning, abortion is illegal in 10 states, not available in 3 states where the laws are unclear, and 13 more states are poised to enact bans or significant restrictions in the coming weeks. In the states where abortion remains legal, legal correspondents like CBS’ Jan Crawford (my law school classmate from the University of Chicago) anticipate an influx of emboldened protesters.

Can we reverse this?

Unlikely. While President Biden expressed his disapproval over the decision and government agencies like the Defense Department and the Department of Justice have openly promised to protect the reproductive health care rights of their members, no executive order or agency directive can change last week’s ruling. And even though companies like Microsoft, Apple, Disney, Uber, Netflix, Meta, Nike and more have similarly offered financial support for any employees who may need to travel for health care needs, corporate pressure cannot change the Court’s ruling.

An implied constitutional right has been swept off the books, and the debate over abortion will continue state by state, household by household, text by text. 

Will this affect my health care in college?

Probably.  Given that protections will vary state by state and, as Dr. Gretchen Ely, professor at the University of Tennessee points out, “[s]ome of the reproductive health services that student health centers might include are physical exams, Pap testing, contraception, emergency contraception, STI testing, pregnancy testing, and pregnancy counseling,” the zip code where you study will likely become more relevant to your health care needs. The advent of Roe’s reversal has already caused some students to reconsider where they apply to college or graduate school, and with trigger laws going into effect this summer these decisions will become all the more devastating for lower-income students.

Thirteen-year-old Alena, for example, told Teen Vogue at the time the draft opinion was leaked that even though being accepted to the University of Alabama Heersink School of Medicine through an early assurance program was a dream come true, she might not attend.

“Right now, if the leaked decision stands, I would not consider going to school in a state where abortion is against the law,” the STEM prodigy said. “This matters to me.”

How will this affect marginalized communities?

Eighteen year-old Riya Goel, a rising sophomore at Barnard College asked this, and the answer is - dramatically. Middlebury College economics professor Caitlin Myers organized 154 economists last year to file a brief against abortion bans, spotlighting decades of research on how unwanted pregnancies can affect women’s education, employment, and earning prospects. “Economists as a whole don’t have disagreement about this,” Myers said.

Tiffany Green, a professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, added that many of those effects will disproportionately fall on those who were already marginalized—particularly women of color and non-binary and transgender people.

“Whether you believe abortion is a moral thing or not, the evidence is the evidence,” Green told The New Yorker in May. “And the overwhelming thrust of the evidence is that this is going to negatively impact women and other pregnant people’s economic prospects, their mental health, their physical health, and ultimately their lives. The end of Roe v. Wade is likely going to have devastating fallout.”

What other constitutional protections might be at risk? We’re hearing a lot of discussion about Casey and Obergefell – are these really decisions that could be overturned?

Eighteen year-old Laalitya Acharya, a rising sophomore at Columbia University asked this, and the disappointing answer is – maybe. In his concurrence with the majority opinion, Justice Thomas stated that the Court should "reconsider" rulings on contraception, same-sex relationships, and same-sex marriage. And experts are saying there could be more.

Barbara Collura, CEO of the non-profit Resolve: The National Infertility Association, warns that the rollback of Roe could have unintended consequences for in-vitro fertilization. Hinting that losing or discarding an embryo in the IVF context could be criminalized by laws that ban abortion from the moment of fertilization, Collura’s comments to The Wall Street Journal reinforce that the ripple effect of Roe may be felt by young women long after they have left the college setting.

What do we do now?

Get informed. Seek support when you need it, and offer it wherever you can. As youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman suggested on Instagram, support local clinics, take action in your community and share your stories with #WhateverTheReason. Above all, continue to inspire each other. You are not too young to speak up, stick together and spur each other on.

“We will fight to ensure that the girls of the future don't grow up with fewer rights than us,“ promises Columbia's Laalitya Acharya - and she means it. 

This wasn’t a surprise.

But you’re not wrong to be shocked by the degree to which Roe’s reversal will impact your world, now and in the future.

Keep listening to your role models as they share their wisdom. Watch leaders work and marshall their forces. And keep sharing this newsletter with your network and sending us your questions.

We’ll be right here finding epic mentors with answers.

Looking forward,

Illana

ÊXTRA: Three more post-Roe resources you won’t want to miss:  For the latest data – The Guttmacher Institute’s excellent interactive maps and graphs, for other rights that may be at risk – TheSkimm’s latest list, and for additional role model reactions, Oprah’s collection of social media posts.