Women’s rights are in great peril in the United States. According to news reports, at least five justices on the U.S. Supreme Court are plotting to destroy the constitutional right to bodily autonomy, as a majority of the Court now seems poised to overrule Roe v. Wade, the longstanding American precedent that protects the constitutional right to abortion. It should not be lost on anyone that men are the key voting block in the Court’s majority to deny women the right to bodily autonomy and personal choice.

The answer is very few. But many American states will outlaw the right to abortion if the US Supreme Court ultimately overrules Roe v. Wade. Those states will join a small and cruel group of authoritarian countries, including Congo, Egypt, Iraq, Laos, and Nicaragua.

In the first line of her forthcoming article, Professor Julie Suk warns that “the end of Roe v. Wade is near,” adding that “other constitutional democracies have moved in the opposite direction, expanding access to safe, legal, and free abortions.” Professor Suk’s important article comes at the just right time because, as she explains, “the development of abortion law outside the United States provides critical insights that can inform future efforts to vindicate the constitutional rights of women facing unwanted pregnancies.”

Tomorrow, May 10, is publication day for our new book on The Limits and Legitimacy of Referendums, published by Oxford University Press. We have assembled an outstanding group of scholars to answer two big questions in relation to referendums: (1) who are “the people”; and (2) how can we know when they have spoken? Oxford University Press is offering a 30% discount with the code below. Please ask your library to acquire a copy. Happy reading! 

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We will launch the book tomorrow as part of the Hamburg Lecture Series in Public & Comparative Law, with thanks to Dr. Anne Dienelt and Dr. Amal Sethi. Join us--all are welcome at this discussion!