By: Morgan Peck
PDF: A New Green Wave
The reproductive rights arena has experienced great upheaval in recent years, particularly regarding access to legal abortion. This Note analyzes recent notable reversals of domestic abortion law: Argentina’s 2020 legalization of elective early-term abortions and the US Supreme Court’s 2022 overruling of a constitutional right to an abortion. This analysis studies the impact of religion, particularly Catholicism, on abortion rights in both countries in order to determine how to overcome and even leverage religion to build more robust abortion rights in a post-Dobbs United States.
US abortion rights advocates should follow the successful strategy of la Marea Verde in Argentina of national legislation enshrining abortion rights. In order to leverage the support of the religiously affiliated US voting populations who may be left out of the mainstream abortion debate (e.g., those who are anti-abortion but pro-choice), such legislation should enshrine views and policies that support the life and dignity of the pregnant (and later parenting) person and their children.