Victims of intimate partner violence and those who suffered most during COVID-19 are among the vulnerable groups that will be most impacted by the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, according to two University of Delaware professors.

Angela Hattery, professor and co-director of UD’s Center for Study & Prevention of Gender Based Violence, can discuss the consequences for victims/survivors of all forms of gender-based violence, including sexual violence and child sexual abuse, but also victims of sex-traficking and intimate partner violence for whom a pregnancy may make escaping the violence much more difficult. Hattery is co-author of a forthcoming study about intimate partner violence, in which women may not only be forced to get pregnant (rape) but also denied the right to get an abortion. 

Earl Smith, professor of women and gender studies, can talk about the unintended/intended consequences that will fall squarely at the doorstep of the individuals and families who have been struggling to make ends meet since the onset of COVID-19. “Removing extension unemployment benefits, ending the child tax credit and so on signals where this country is headed,” Smith said. “There is surely a race, class, gender war being waged against working class people by the elites in Congress and at the Supreme Court.”

Source:  University of Delaware