This January marks the 51st anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade that established a constitutional right to abortion. But 18 months ago, the Supreme Court took away that right in its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

In the aftermath of Dobbs, the landscape of reproductive rights around the country has sharply fractured. Fourteen states have enacted total bans on abortion, and seven more severely restrict access, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which describes the status of abortion rights in many states as “dismal.” One in five abortion patients now travel out of state for care.

Vermont is one of seven states that have protected the right to abortion since Dobbs.

Felicia Kornbluh has chronicled the rise and fall of reproductive rights in essays for the Washington Post, Time and other publications. Kornbluh is professor of history with appointments in Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies and Jewish Studies at the University of Vermont. She is also vice president of the board of the Planned Parenthood of Vermont Action Fund and was a signatory to a “friend of the court” brief in the Dobbs case on behalf of the American Society for Legal History. 

Her latest book is “A Woman’s Life is a Human Life: My Mother, Our Neighbor and the Journey from Reproductive Rights to Reproductive Justice,” which was released in paperback this month.

Kornbluh is critical of the state-by-state approach to protecting abortion rights. In Ohio, where voters approved an abortion rights amendment in November, advocates for and against abortion spent a combined $70 million.

“That's crazy,” said Kornbluh. “Thinking about political strategy, I just can't imagine how we can keep going. …We need a national solution.”

Kornbluh said that the Women's Health Protection Act, which would expand abortion rights, could be that solution. It was originally proposed in Congress in 2013 and was reintroduced following the Dobbs decision. It passed the House in 2021 and narrowly lost in the Senate in 2022.

“If we were able to have robust Democratic majorities in both the House and the Senate, then we would be able to pass that and we would be able to protect people's rights on the national level and do something different with that millions and millions of dollars…. to get us back to some kind of humane baseline in terms of abortion rights.”

Medication abortions now account for more than half of abortions, and many states, including Vermont, are making plans to stockpile the medication in the event of a national ban. 

Kornbluh asserted that "what will continue to happen on the ground is far outpacing the effort of anti-abortion people and crotchety conservative judges who were trying to control it." 

She conceded, however, "They can still do damage."