Supreme Court Justice Alito asserts that the Court’s leaked decision overruling Roe v. Wade returns the power to decide for or against abortion “to the people and their elected representatives.” In fact, the decision delivers the power to white men.
In 21 states, overturning Roe v. Wade will activate abortion bans. Republican state legislators hold majorities in all 21 states, whose diverse populations are barely – if at all – represented by the ruling party.
- In 15 of the 21 states, GOP state legislators are more than 80 percent white men, virtually erasing the voices of the women affected by abortion bans.
- Women of color are less than 0.5 percent of GOP legislators in the 21 states.
- In all but one of the 21 states, new voter suppression laws separate “the people” even further from the power to decide.
Who Will Prosecute Women and Doctors?
In the 21 states that will ban abortions if Roe is overturned, elected prosecutors are overwhelmingly white and male. In six of the states, every elected prosecutor is white.
When the officials criminalizing health care are mostly white men, and their primary targets are poor women and women of color, just outcomes are unlikely to follow.
There’s nothing democratic about a system in which a small minority overrides the self-determination of the majority. This particular minority is incapable of pregnancy – the profoundly personal experience they are determined to control – which makes the violation of democracy even more egregious.
Brenda Choresi Carter, Director, Reflective Democracy Campaign
