Dr. Ricky Hill
The decision, if rendered as based on the opinion, threatens to overturn protections for women’s rights established by Roe v. Wade, which protected a woman’s right to privacy such as in the case of abortion. Twenty-six states are poised to immediately ban abortions, without exception or consideration of medical necessity in most cases, if such a ruling is upheld.
Scholars around the country have expressed outrage online — as well as their concerns about the domino effect the ruling could have on other issues in gender and sexuality.
“The implications of this potential ruling will be far more sweeping than I think many of us can even begin to realize,” says Dr. Ricky Hill, a research assistant professor at the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, in a statement posted to the school’s website. “The cries of ‘states’ rights!’ are ready to encompass everything from birth control to gender-affirming care to marriage equality to who knows what else. Abortion is just one focused attack on bodily autonomy, and I anticipate that this is only the beginning of a backsliding of rights for a lot of marginalized individuals.”
Dr. Katherine Sender, professor of communication and feminist, gender, and sexuality studies at Cornell University, says via her institution’s blog that she sees “a direct link between the possible overturning of Roe v. Wade and the risk of push back on LGBTQ civil rights.”
“We are already seeing parallel conservatism with Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill. But the Roe v. Wade issue is a little different because it puts in question the right to privacy that also underlies the overturning of anti-sodomy laws, and thus marriage equality,” she says.
A threat to recruitment
