From the Womb to the Tomb: the Death of Roe Between Science, Women and Religion

The COVID-19 emergency has offered valuable insight into the complex interplay between science, politics, and society, demonstrating with undeniable clarity that science is not immune to social, political, and sometimes even religious influences. In a time wildly unsettled by the pandemic, debates over the polarisation and manipulation of scientific fields take place against the backdrop of pre-existing emergencies that continue to disproportionately affect the most vulnerable members of society. Building on this premise, this present paper speaks to this volume’s guiding theme on COVID-19, gender law and religion by giving perspective on how faith-based readings of science could impact women, and, in the worst-case scenario, limit their access to a crucial area of public health: abortion. Taking the United States as a case study, this paper begins by describing the historical entanglement between science and religion towards the long-standing, pro-life goal of ending abortion nationwide. Looking at the present, it then considers how the high-profile decision in Dobbs v Jackson’s Women Health Organization and litigation over COVID-19 are accelerating the role of the legal category “freedom of religion or belief” (FoRB) as a new and creative weapon to defend the right to terminate a pregnancy.