The Alabama Supreme Court issued a ruling on Feb. 16 by an 8-1 majority that frozen embryos are constituted as “unborn children,” mirroring the state’s Constitution which recognizes rights of “the unborn.” The first of its kind, the ruling symptomatic of the 21st-century emergence of fetal personhood legislation embedded within Christian fundamentalism in the United States.
Author: Mellissa Linton
Mellissa Linton (she/her) is an assistant professor in women and gender studies at Arizona State University and is the faculty coordinator for the LGBT undergraduate studies certificate at ASU. She is an emergent author on reproductive justice in the United States and El Salvador, speaking to her goal to foster transnational solidarity within the Central American diaspora. Linton received her Ph.D. in ethnic studies at UC San Diego, and bachelor's in literature and American studies at the University of Southern California.
Resisting the Overturn of Roe: What U.S. Feminists Can Learn From El Salvador
In a grim moment nationally, let us look to Latin America for the sustained will to resist and overturn abortion bans.
Most notably, U.S. reproductive rights organizers should think of legal and cultural campaigns that can move across states. Though combatting abortion bans in the U.S. will be difficult because states exert their own jurisdiction over abortion laws, we can create a national movement and anticipate the challenges ahead through learning from Latin American feminists, especially the resilient people of El Salvador since 1998.