Recent events have led me to study the history of abortion in Ireland, a country that is 78% Catholic as of their 2016 census.

Abortion had been prohibited since 1861 yet, as of January 1, 2019, Ireland has one of the most liberal abortion laws in Europe; abortion is permitted in Ireland during the first twelve weeks of pregnancy and later in cases where the pregnant woman’s life or health is at risk, or in cases of a fatal fetal abnormality.

How did a majority Catholic country change its position so dramatically? It goes back to the 2012 death of Savita Halappanavar who was denied an abortion while suffering a septic miscarriage.

This case received worldwide attention and caused a political reevaluation of abortion in this country of roughly five-million people. In 2018, there was a nationwide referendum on the 36th Amendment to the Irish constitution which defined the abortion rights that exist today. The result was a landslide — 66.4% for abortion rights and 33.6% against.

Justice Alito, who wrote the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (along with the assent of his associates Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett), would have us believe that he came into his review of Dobbs with an open mind and studied the law before arriving at his decision, not just on Dobbs but on Roe v. Wade.

In no way did he make an ideological decision and then find a way to justify it, a justification that asserted his brilliance and superiority to the earlier justices who decided Roe (1973) and Casey (1992). It should be noted that the Casey opinion was written by Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Anthony Kennedy and David Souter, all Republican appointees to the court.

The Dobbs decision was, in effect, a collection of five religious zealots on the Supreme Court asserting their power over an American public which disapproved of the decision by a 57% to 43% margin (according to the Pew Research Center). How fitting that conservative Kansas came in even higher at 59% in favor of abortion rights and 41% against in their recent vote, affirming the Kansas constitution under which abortion is legal.

Justice Alito may tell us that his decision in Dobbs did not in any way ban abortions, it merely left the decision to the states.

Does he really believe that Americans are naïve enough to believe that he had no idea that as many as half of American states would move ahead to ban abortions?

Many have already done so, much to the disadvantage of millions of young women. Pregnancies do not always terminate in a normal birth of a healthy baby; many end by other means which often require treatment by an OB/GYN.

I know a woman who had a miscarriage a year prior to the birth of her first child.

When the bleeding would not stop, she saw an OB/GYN who treated her with a D&C. Today, in a state with abortion laws like those in Texas, she would be unlikely to receive treatment as her OB/GYN would be concerned that he might be investigated for murder. Of course, there are many other problems that women can face in pregnancy (see Savita Halappanavar in Ireland) and treatment is likely to be problematic in abortion-ban states.

The Republican Party must answer for this. They fought against abortion for 50 years and it is Republican-controlled states that have passed radical bills banning abortions.

Will OB/GYN’s remain in states in which providing treatment for a variety of problems could result in a criminal investigation or will they move?

Will young women wish to remain in such states? Kansas handed a landslide 14.5% victory to Donald Trump in 2020 and just supported abortion by a whopping 18%. Inevitably, women will die due to an absence of care. Will abortion suddenly become the major issue in the November mid-terms?

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