Roe v. Wade Anniversary Highlights the Reality in Red States

On the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, women leading Democratic parties in some of the most restrictive states in the country are speaking out.

In a statement shared exclusively with Glamour, party chairs from Nebraska, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee called out president Donald Trump for what they call the “immediate and catastrophic” fallout of Roe’s reversal. Since the Supreme Court struck down Roe in 2022—after Trump appointed three justices who made that possible—13 states have enacted abortion bans since Roe v. Wade was struck down. The consequences, they say, are already here: women denied care, providers criminalized, and literal lives lost.

“Fifty-three years ago today, the Supreme Court affirmed a simple but powerful principle in Roe v. Wade: that personal medical decisions belong to patients, not politicians, the statement, organized by the Democratic National Committee, reads.

Trump has proudly taken credit for the decision, writing in a 2023 Truth Social post, “I was able to kill Roe v. Wade.” The women behind today’s statement say they’re living with the aftermath every day—and they’re not backing down.

“Trump may have ‘killed’ Roe as he put it,” the statement adds, “but Democrats will not rest until it’s restored.”

They say the fight now stretches beyond the courts—into statehouses, elections, and daily organizing in places where abortion access has all but disappeared. The message is clear: the anniversary of Roe isn’t just a moment of remembrance, it’s a line in the sand.

That urgency mirrors what Glamour editors and readers have been shouting about for decades, marching in the streets, and banging on our representatives’ doors. We’ve been writing about abortion rights since before Roe ever reached the Supreme Court. You’ve read our coverage of what really happens to women who are denied abortion, our account of getting an abortion during the pandemic, our collection of men’s abortion stories, our explanation of late-term abortion, and more.

Following the fall of Roe in 2022, we haven’t sat quietly while the assumption that women are people who deserve autonomy over their bodies has been rejected by the nation’s top justices, and focused on efforts on storytelling that highlights the human cost behind the laws. A few recent pieces of note that include the cover story on two of our 2024 Women of the Year honorees, Hadley Duvall and Kaitlyn Joshua, who both turned personal trauma into national advocacy, to a harrowing firsthand account about navigating abortion care in South Carolina. We created a practical how-to guide for surviving and serving others through a mystifying and, frankly, downright dystopian time.

No matter what the story though, the throughline is the same. Roe’s fall isn’t abstract. It’s lived. And for millions of women, the consequences are ongoing.