Abortion Bans and Minority Rule

The impending Supreme Court decision on Roe vs. Wade has obvious implications for abortion rights, but it also signals a crisis for democracy. It’s widely known that GOP legislators hold majorities in the 23 states where the end of Roe will mean abortions are banned. But new analysis from the Reflective Democracy Campaign, a project of the Women Donors Network, reveals just how undemocratic the bans will be. 

In 17 of the 23 states, GOP state legislators are more than 80 percent white men, and though abortion bans disproportionately burden women of color, 17 of the states have zero women of color in their GOP caucuses. In all but three of the states, new voter suppression laws further mute the voices of diverse state populations about laws that will change their lives forever.

So when SCOTUS asserts it’s sending the issue back to the states for the people to decide, in reality it’s putting the issue in the hands of those least affected by abortion bans, and institutionalizing an extreme form of minority rule.

Brenda Carter, the Reflective Democracy Campaign’s Director, observed, “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.”

To learn more, read the Reflective Democracy Campaign’s briefing memo Abortion Bans and Minority Rule.