The Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion across the United States, will have immediate ramifications nationwide: Abortion will now be either illegal or heavily restricted in nearly half of the states.
But global political leaders and international reproductive rights groups stressed in their immediate reactions that ripple effects from the decision will be felt around the world ― and particularly in regions like Latin America and Africa, where contentious fights continue over access to abortion and other forms of reproductive health care.
Recent victories in Argentina, Colombia, Ireland, Mexico and Kenya have generated a broad sense of progress for the global reproductive rights movement, adding nations from some of the most conservative corners of the world to the list of roughly 60 countries that have expanded abortion rights over the last three decades.
The United States is now one of just a handful of countries that has drastically restricted the right to abortion over that time span, and is by far the largest and most influential nation to do so. Such a seismic defeat in a country whose legalization of abortion often served as a blueprint for success abroad will likely provide a jolt to conservative political leaders and movements that have sought to further restrict abortion access or reverse recent gains.
“The opposition will be emboldened by the Supreme Court’s decision,” said Giselle Carino, the CEO of Fòs Feminista, an international reproductive rights advocacy group. Carino, who is Argentine, helped fight for the passage of legislation legalizing abortion in her native country in 2019.
“The regression of rights here in the U.S. will affect our work on everything from comprehensive sexual education to access to abortion care to contraception,” Carino said. “It will have very difficult consequences for all of us in the Global South. It will make our work much harder.”
Heads of state from around the world began weighing in on the decision almost immediately after it was released, with the earliest reactions expressing dismay.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called it “a big step backwards” for the United States, adding that he has “always believed in a woman’s right to choose.”
Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister of Scotland, said in a tweet that the decision marked “one of the darkest days for women’s rights in my lifetime,” adding that it will “embolden anti-abortion & anti-women forces in other countries too.”
“Solidarity doesn’t feel like enough right now – but it is necessary,” Sturgeon said.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, called the news of the decision “horrific.”
“My heart goes out to the millions of American women who are now set to lose their legal right to an abortion,” Trudeau said in a tweet. “I can’t imagine the fear and anger you are feeling right now.”
Other international lawmakers celebrated the decision, including those from countries where abortion has only recently been legalized.
“Without life, there is no liberty,” Javier Milei, a conservative Argentine congressman, tweeted Friday, with an image of the Supreme Court decision attached.
Milei is likely to challenge President Alberto Fernandez, who signed legislation legalizing abortion in Argentina in early 2021, in next year’s presidential election.
Roe’s overturn could also have immediate galvanizing effects on the anti-abortion movement in Brazil. Abortion is broadly illegal in Brazil except in limited cases of rape, maternal health or fetal anomaly, and South America’s largest country has not followed its regional counterparts in broadening access in recent years.
Damares Alves, the former minister of Women, Family and Health in right-wing Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro’s cabinet, celebrated the decision on Twitter, calling Friday a “day of victory for life.”
“Believe me, this will be the world trend,” Alves, who is running for a seat in the Brazilian Senate this year, tweeted. “The world wants to move forward! The world wants to leave this primitive and medieval practice behind.”
“One day,” she said in a subsequent post, “we will be ashamed of this moment in which humanity lives in which madmen fight to kill innocent children.”
A high-profile abortion case has gripped the country in recent days, after The Intercept Brazil reported on a judge’s decision to separate an 11-year-old girl from her family and place her in a shelter because she was seeking an abortion to end a pregnancy that resulted from rape. The case sparked outrage across Brazil, and the girl received an abortion this week.
Bolsonaro, who has supported legislation to totally outlaw abortion in Brazil, accused abortion advocates of “barbarism” around the case in a Thursday evening tweet thread. His son Eduardo, a congressman, on Friday urged his supporters to back a state lawmaker’s push to launch a congressional investigation into the performance of the abortion.
Bolsonaro had not reacted to the Supreme Court decision as of early Friday afternoon. Advocates who’ve fought for expanded rights in Brazil, however, lamented the defeat.
“A day of great anguish for women, girls and all people in the United States,” Debora Diniz, a Brazilian feminist and human rights advocate, tweeted. “A half-century throwback.”
This article will be updated with more reactions to the ruling, so please check back later.
