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The results of Tuesday's elections will have enormous impact on the reproductive rights movement. The 2018 midterms are a major issue for the audience and the stage for the future.
Restrictions to contraception are on the ballot in three states on Tuesday. Voters in Alabama, West Virginia, and Oregon had the option to make it more difficult for women to terminate pregnancies in their states – and while Oregon's did not pass, the measures were successful in West Virginia and Alabama. The Alabama and West Virginia's ballot initiatives have not been protected under their constitutions.
"Dr. Brandi Shah, a family doctor and clinician who 's about to start work in Alabama.
Abortion is not totally banned in Alabama now, though, thanks to Roe v. Wade and the federal protections it guarantees. As Shah describes it, the law is an "offensive tactic so that the state could already be codified in their constitution that abortion would be illegal". under the new conservative SCOTUS majority. Shah notes that the consequences of such a move would be made by those who are marginalized, including low-income women and women of color.
These potential threats to Roe v. Wade seem more likely that the GOP has expanded its hold over the Senate. The President of the United States, President Donald Trump, will be able to continue to make Supreme Court justices if he would nominate anti-abortion access judges.
But the midterms did not bring up bad news for reproductive rights. Democrats took the House, which means that they will be able to do so in the future. Although Congress can not ban altogether (thanks to Roe), it can bans on certain types, and those are far less likely to pass in a split Congress.
Meanwhile, in state elections, Democrats flipped several states legislatures, which could prevent anti-abortion laws from being passed, and the Democrats who are taking over governorships can stop anti-abortion laws that do pass from being signed into law. (And, of course, they can also work on laws that protect abortion access.)
Plus, there's the possibility that the new laws in Alabama and West Virginia have already "challenged people to continue to move this fight forward," which is what Shah says she thinks has happened.
"This is a process," she tells Bustle. "It is kind of a slow process in places like Alabama, "goal," We are very slow moving in directions that are recognizing some of these rights, like access to health care, and putting in place leaders who are fighting for those rights. "
Exit polls from the election certainly back that up. NBC found that two-thirds of voters Roe v. Wade 83 percent of Democrats and 74 percent of Independents. The opinion was nearly even among the Republicans: 44 supported it and 45 were opposed. Surveys leading up to the election found that abortion is a major concern for voters. A poll found that 61 percent of Democrats said it would be a "very important issue to their vote," and 44 percent of Republicans said the same. The elections' extraordinarily high turnout indicates that contraception is a big priority for Americans right now.
As a physician, Shah has seen first-hand why that is. "Abortion is health care, plain and simple," she tells Bustle. "The fact that this is one of the most important things you can do for yourself and your patients."
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