Remember, remember, the 5th of November, when United States citizens go to the polls, and the world holds its breath. Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’s stands against former President and Republican candidate Donald Trump. Despite all the geopolitical, economic and environmental instability over this past year, the hot-button issue in the 2024 Presidential election remains sexual and reproductive health (SRH) - specifically abortion rights.
In 2022, the Dobbs Amendment ruling passed by the US Supreme Court overturned Roe versus Wade, a law which had made access to abortion a federal requirement for nearly 50 years. As a result, abortion was re-criminalised across the United States, with an estimated 13 million women and pregnant people losing access to pregnancy terminations, including those for medical necessity. Early research has shown that the overturning of Roe versus Wade has had a knock-on effect, where access to a spectrum of SRH-related services has also been affected.
The US Presidential Election has overwhelming relevance to global politics . It is no secret that America’s influence looms large in the UK. We can see America’s cultural shadow on a more micro-level too: UK "Pro-Life" pressure groups have more than doubled their spending since the Dobbs amendment, adopting tactics and rhetoric most often associated with their American counterparts.
More recently, in Scotland , the US-born anti-abortion group 40 Days for Life threatened to sue the Government ove.