More than a year and a half into the wake of Roe being thrown out, how does the U.S. electorate feel about abortion now? 

While pro-life advocates are rejoicing, an unprecedented number of women are coming alive to the issue of abortion and saying “NO! You can’t control my body (or my partner’s, or my daughter’s)!” They’re becoming vocal, joining demonstrations and taking to the polls. And many men are also waking up to the fact that abortion, like contraception and like parenting, is an issue they need to care about.

On August 2nd, 2022, voters in the traditionally conservative state of Kansas said a resounding “NO” to a proposed amendment to that state’s constitution that would have made abortion illegal statewide. Kansas was the first U.S. state to vote on abortion rights since the Supreme Court ruling, and the vote was astonishing for 2 reasons: 1) nearly 60% of eligible voters went to the polls and voted NO, and 2) it was a record high voter turnout. AND it wasn’t just younger voters, but older women and men who don’t want their adult daughters or young friends and relatives to be criminalized for wanting an abortion.

The door has been thrown open for states to make abortion a criminal act. A number of mostly conservative U.S. state legislatures, believing they are the moral police, have rushed to pass laws forbidding and criminalizing abortions, placing physicians in a cruel predicament where, to save a woman’s life, they may end up losing their license and spending time in prison. These legislatures, mostly comprised of white men, do not reflect many or most of the voters in their state. Yet these men are now free to enact whatever draconian laws they wish, to place women back in the home in a housedress, raising their kids. Ironically, it may turn out that the unintended positive result of making it possible for states to criminalize pregnant women and doctors will be for more women – and men – to become pro-choice and hopefully get interested in other pressing issues as well.