Maybe people are already aware about this, but as someone living in the UK and not the US, I don't know very much about the legal side of the US abortion debate, only that it is a very volatile issue from a societal perspective.
I found these two podcasts extremely informative and would highly recommend them, because they helped me to actually understand the situation and the legal framework of how it was implemented, and why it can be overturned.
Each one is about 25 minutes long and quite easy to understand.
I was unaware that the underlying case was based on fairly tenuous interpretations of personal liberty. This makes it extremely vulnerable to being overturned at some point in the future by the Supreme Court should its judges wish to do so.
www.nytimes.com/2019/05/20/podcasts/the-daily/supreme-court-abortion.html
www.nytimes.com/2019/05/17/podcasts/the-daily/alabama-abortion-law-roe-wade.html
Quite shocking, really, to know it all rests on such a vague interpretation. It was all they had to work with at the time, so I don't fault the legal team, but I would have thought the women's rights movements in the nineties and onwards would have been conscious of its weaknesses and pushed for a much more robust law to replace it. Maybe they did but it didn't gather enough momentum - I don't know the activist history.
As much as I dislike the evangelical right, I have to admit they are on the ball. They have understood the law, understood the loopholes and actually have a long term plan to keep chipping away, coming up with inventive restrictions.
Sadly, it seems like the only thing many on the left (and I use that term quite loosely) is a social media performance of moral outrage and posting of edgy memes. It's no wonder the right keep making slow but sure gains.
It also reminded me of the value of educating ourselves on facts, laws, how our rights are implemented, what the loopholes are and whether they can be superseded with more robust frameworks.
I find many activists and socially progressive movements have a very poor understanding of economics, law etc, or at least don't seem to demonstrate this effectively to the general public. There will be marches, slogans and so on, which is not a bad thing, but very few concrete ideas on what should be done or how to effectively cement various rights so those who wish to undermine them will find it harder to do so. I guess it's easy to feel complacent until it's too late.
This is very relevant for the UK too now that we are embroiled in the gender identity issue with queer theory being pushed as if it's a mainstream idea and trans ideology is impacting on sex based rights.