In 1973, abortion was made legal across the US after a landmark ruling known as Roe v. Wade. The US Supreme Court has now overturned that right. In its widespread implications, set to ripple way beyond reproductive rights, the move represents a significant threat to what’s urgently needed: a future that is socially just, as well as ecologically sound. Here, Forum for the Future’s Associate Director of Global Development, Priya Kvam, explores the issue as a systemic challenge and outlines four key lessons learned in the sustainability movement that can help us now.

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At Forum for the Future, we are practiced in the art of imagination. Our team of applied futurists is skilled at reading signals and mapping trajectories of what’s to come. So, we should not have been surprised by last week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. But we couldn’t help it – we were stunned. How do we prepare half the population for the end of bodily autonomy as we know it? 

In striking down the constitutional right to an abortion, codified under Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), the Supreme Court did what it has never done before: rescind a legal right, ignore and overrule precedent, and expose a lie – namely, that the law will not be treated as a political pawn, no matter the convictions of individual members of the court. 

Last Friday’s ruling opened the door for other, equally grave, challenges to human rights: among them, the right to contraception, to sexual privacy, and to same-sex marriage. This isn’t hyperbole; in his concurring opinion, Justice Thomas advised the Court to “reconsider” three other landmark cases which relied on the liberty and due justice clause of the 14th Amendment – the same one that previously upheld Roe. 

The ruling has also unleashed a wave of panic about the dangers posed by Big Data and the surveillance state. People quickly moved to delete Google search histories and menstrual period tracking apps, but our privacy is tenuous; we can only protect so much. 

What comes next will affect not only women, but birthing people of all genders: many transgender and nonbinary people need access to abortion, and are especially vulnerable. 

"Last Friday’s ruling opened the door for other, equally grave, challenges to human rights: among them, the right to contraception, to sexual privacy, and to same-sex marriage."

What's at stake?

Now, with abortion rights legislated by each state, access has vanished in large swathes of the country (credit to the ACLU, Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood, and others fighting to enforce the protections that still exist). Even if abortion is legal, there are other hurdles, like having the means to travel, leave work, and access childcare. In Illinois, a state that spans 390 miles from north to south, there are just 29 abortion providers, mostly in Chicago. That means that if you live in Carbondale, in the southwestern corner of the state, you might have to travel 332 miles to access care. In California, where abortion also remains legal, there is likely to be a 3,000% uptick in demand, mostly from out-of-state. 

For people in abortion deserts (areas without a single provider), medication abortion – where pills are posted to your address and abortion is self-managed or managed with assistance from a telehealth provider – is a safe, accessible option. But it may not be for long.

There is extensive literature on the consequences of legislating abortion out of existence, and what it could mean in a country without universal paid family leave, with insufficient access to baby formula and nutrious food, and a rate of maternal mortality far higher than in other high-income countries (the crisis is particularly acute among Black women, who experience the compounded effects of systemic racism). With the fall of Roe, we have entered a new chapter in a longstanding apartheid at the intersection of gender, poverty, geography, and race. 

"With the fall of Roe, we have entered a new chapter in a longstanding apartheid at the intersection of gender, poverty, geography, and race." 

A familiar dystopia…

In many places, this dystopia is not new. For decades, “pro-life” advocates have stripped away de facto access to abortion - installing barriers to safe, comprehensive, high quality sexual and reproductive health care. They have proven to be experts at changing the system, shifting mindsets through emotive campaigns for the rights of the unborn, and influencing policies and institutions through charismatic political candidates as well as money and influence behind the scenes. Not to mention: tactical appointments to the Supreme Court. 

The movement has succeeded in spite of growing support for abortion rights across the country. 85% of Americans, surveyed by Gallup in May 2022, believe abortion should be legal in some or all circumstances – up from 75% in 1975. And 55% of Americans identify as pro-choice, the highest percentage since 1996. So what does this tell us? Beliefs don’t have to be dominant for a system to shift. What matters is building a critical mass with access to power, and leveraging key levers of system change. 

"So what does this tell us? Beliefs don’t have to be dominant for a system to shift. What matters is building a critical mass with access to power, and leveraging key levers of system change." 

To even begin to shift these circumstances, we need courage, stamina, and transformational thinking…

For more than 25 years, Forum has been practicing systems change for sustainability. We work with partners across all levels of a system on a shared challenge, with the ultimate goal of creating a just and regenerative future; one in which communities as well as ecosystems thrive, and all human rights are respected.

We’ve learned four key lessons on this journey that I feel can help us now. 

1. Business has catalytic potential and - as it did early in the climate movement - can (and should) lead a response. Businesses will need encouragement along the way, but already we’ve seen promising signs: a range of companies – several with outsize influence and market share – have announced policies to support employee access to abortion care. Many are offering financial assistance for out-of-state travel. 
   
   A great start - but one that needs to be strengthened with truly bold commitments; commitments that are capable of transforming not only a business’s immediate social footprint but its impact on the wider communities in which it operates. It’s not only about employees and their families, but helping create a network of care.
   
   Perhaps these commitments are being negotiated behind the scenes. Perhaps the ambition isn’t there yet. Could businesses fund networks of sexual and reproductive health services and childcare facilities? Could the insurance industry reimagine its role, introducing a new and better standard of care? What will it take for interventions to be led by more than a model minority? The scale of the challenge shouldn’t mean we don’t try. 

2. Being bold in business means looking longer-term to a more distant horizon; it means letting go of the short-term thinking and vested interests that impede systems change. 
   
   For businesses facing shareholder pressures and the risk of consumer backlash, changing behavior is no small feat. But perhaps we can take inspiration from cases where profits did rebound, and new audiences were found, diagnosing – and replicating – the change that happened. For example, when Nike struck an advertising deal with football player Colin Kaepernick, ostracized by the NFL for his protest in support of Black Lives, there was a consumer boycott. But it didn’t last. How might we act more often in service to what is right – what is equitable and just – whether that be through company-wide healthcare policy or the marketing of consumer brands?

3. We need to address the root causes of challenges, and honor the expertise of changemaker partners across the system. 
   
   For decades, reproductive justice activists, led in the U.S. by Black women, have pointed to the intersectionality of gender, sexuality, race, and class; built the capacity of birth workers and activist allies; and championed new models of community organizing and patient care. This is not a moment to reinvent, but to listen and learn. And to leverage our own strengths – in Forum’s case, applying systems-wide thinking along with futures practice to not only understand what alternative futures are possible, but to diagnose where and how we need to act to create the future we all want. 

4. Finally – and not insignificantly – we must use our voice. The midterm elections are in November, and we have an opportunity to express our values through our votes, as the “pro-life” movement has done so successfully. Businesses can likewise activate, whether by partnering with governments on civic initiatives, or instituting policies like paid leave on Election Day.

"This is not a moment to reinvent, but to listen and learn. And to leverage our own strengths – in Forum’s case, applying systems-wide thinking along with futures practice to not only understand what alternative futures are possible, but to diagnose where and how we need to act to create the future we all want."

We are living in a post-Roe world, but that doesn’t mean we are sentenced to a future that isn’t just and regenerative. If we want to shift systems, we need to understand, and actually engage, with both activating and resisting forces. The key, as it so often is, will be to stay the course, have strength in our own convictions and empathy for those who see the system differently.