2024 is set to be monumental for women’s rights against the backdrop of a series of elections — 76 countries are having elections this year in which the general population can vote, 43 of which are ‘free’ elections with the power to bring about meaningful policy change — but eyes in the West are, for the moment at least, firmly on America, as the country’s race to become the 47th president of the United States gets underway.
Of course, America’s recent tussle with women’s rights needs little introduction. As preparations begin for New Hampshire’s first-in-the nation primary, which will be held today, it’s the already weakened rights of women under Donald Trump, who has referred to various women as ‘dogs’, ‘bimbos’ and ‘lowlifes’, that is a cause for concern for many. With just over nine months to go until the US will cast its votes for president, women’s rights groups are scrambling with what a potential Trump win could mean for them amid the continuously ruptured fall-out from the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
In the first stage of the nomination process, the Iowa caucus, which took place last week, Trump secured 51% of Republican support – an unprecedented victory for any race not involving a sitting president. Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who has since dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump, received 21% of votes, while Nikki Haley finished third with 19%, but claimed she now had the momentum to challenge Trump. The reality, though, is that with a historical win tucked under his belt so early in the process, it seems unlikely that anybody else would be able to secure the nomination besides Trump.
In response to Trump’s triumph, US vice-president, Kamala Harris, tweeted, urging people to donate to the Biden-Harris campaign. ‘Trump just won the Iowa caucus,’ she wrote. ‘The same person who recently called the overturning of Roe v. Wade a “miracle” is one step closer to becoming the Republican nominee for president.’
At a speech marking Martin Luther King Jr. Day in South Carolina last week, which will host its contest on February 3, Harris warned that freedom in the country is under ‘profound threat’ and cited the supreme court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. America's supreme court were able to overturn the historical precedent in 2022, which enshrined a woman’s right to abortion, after being packed with Conservative-aligned judges under Trump’s government.
After abortion clinics across the south and midwest were forced to shutter last year, patients overwhelmed the country’s remaining clinics. In the first year after Roe v. Wade’s demise, the average number of US abortions performed each month rose rather than fell. Abortion bans continued to cascade across the country last year, with near-total bans taking effect in Indiana, North Dakota and South Carolina. North Carolina and Nebraska, meanwhile, enacted laws to ban abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy. In total, 24 states or territories have now banned abortion before viability, or roughly 24 weeks of pregnancy, which would have been illegal under Roe.
For those thinking that we have been inoculated in the UK from such advanced assaults on women’s rights — don’t be fooled. The right to abortion is not protected under UK law, with women still being actively prosecuted (and going to prison) for the act. Most recently, at the beginning of January, Bethany Cox was finally cleared over being charged for using drugs to bring about an illegal abortion as the first UK coronavirus lockdown ended. She was the fourth woman in eight months to appear in a UK court on illegal abortion charges.
This is bigger than reproductive rights and women’s autonomy over their own bodies. A Trump nomination or, even worse, a Trump win, is bigger than statistics, it’s about the collective value of women’s positions within society, both at home and abroad.
Winning in the Iowa caucus doesn’t necessarily confirm a win for the president — Biden finished fourth in the 2020 caucus — but it is a cumulative snowball effect, and for a man who has made clear his stance on women’s rights, votes for Trump are not only a very real, tangible possibility but a threat to the very freedoms women enjoy. In the immortal words of Audre Lorde, ‘I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.'
Trump is expected to appear in a New York courtroom tomorrow, after attending his campaign rally in New Hampshire, for the postponed start of a defamation damages trial brought by writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of rape. A jury in May found the former president liable of sexual abuse and defamation, voting to award Carroll $5m in damages.
‘You've got to deny, deny, deny and push back on these women. If you admit to anything and any culpability, then you're dead. … You've got to be strong,' Bob Woodward quoted Trump as saying in his book Fear: Trump in the White House. 'You've got to be aggressive. You've got to push back hard. You've got to deny anything that's said about you. Never admit.’
Naomi May is a freelance writer and editor with an emphasis on popular culture, lifestyle and politics. After graduating with a First Class Honours from City University's prestigious Journalism course, Naomi joined the Evening Standard as its Fashion and Beauty Writer, working across both the newspaper and website. She is now the Acting News Editor at ELLE UK and has written features for the likes of The Guardian, Vogue, Vice and Refinery29, among many others.
