Moving Past the Shock of Dobbs

Our new normal and how to fight back ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

June 24, 2025

Salutations, Meteor readers,

Today is the third anniversary of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which overturned nearly 50 years of federal protection for abortion rights. I wish I could say I never thought we’d see the day, but as a member of the post-Y2K, post-9/11, post-’08 recession, post-COVID, post-Roe generation, there isn’t a crisis I haven’t lived through. Honestly, just waiting for the rivers to turn to blood…oh wait.

In today’s newsletter, we look at our disturbing new normal and try to move past our post-Dobbs shock.

At least we have each other,

Shannon Melero

WHAT'S GOING ON

Time has truly flown since 2022, when so many of us spent the day wondering, what do we do now? In the time since we’ve marched, donated, voted for abortion, made podcasts, and learned just how far people in power are willing to go to limit our bodily autonomy. So, how does the reality of a post-Roe America differ from what we once predicted? Let’s take a look:

“Back-alley abortions” didn’t happen, but devastating emergencies did: Perhaps everyone’s greatest fear was that pregnant people would have to resort to barbaric methods of reproductive care—that we’d be back to the days of women dying on motel floors. A spike like that has not materialized, largely due to two factors: the FDA expanding access to abortion pills by mail shortly before Dobbs, and later the passage of shield laws that protected doctors who mailed those pills across state lines. But in the 19 states that have restricted abortion access before viability with vague or hastily written “exceptions,” there have been life-or-death situations in emergency rooms for patients like Amanda Zurawski and Amber Nicole Thurman. Pre-Dobbs, Zurawski wrote for The Meteor, “my healthcare team would have been able to treat me immediately and end my doomed pregnancy as soon as possible … I wouldn’t have had to wait in anguish for days for the inescapable ill fate that awaited.”
Mail-order abortion pills became a lifeline—and a target: If I had a penny for every time I had to explain to a friend that you can still get safe, effective abortion pills online with a brief consultation via video call (yes, even in states with bans), I’d have at least one full dollar. Last year, the Guttmacher Institute released a study showing that medication abortion now accounts for 63 percent of all abortions in the U.S., up from 53% in 2020. But as a result, some lawmakers are trying to limit access by questioning the pill’s safety and attacking telemedicine, which accounted for a quarter of abortions in 2024. Late last year, New York OBGYN Dr. Margaret Carpenter was sued by the state of Texas for prescribing abortion pills to a patient living in the state. But even with challenges and looming court cases, mifepristone, a highly tested and safe medication, is still available to people seeking abortions. In fact, because of shield laws and the expansion of telemedicine, the total number of abortions is on the rise—even in some red states like Mississippi.
Young people have been LARCing: A CDC report from 2023 showed that use of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) like IUDs and Nexplanon reached a peak of 19 percent among sexually active teenagers, a significant increase from the previous five years. The use of emergency contraception also sharply increased, hitting a high of 22 percent among 15-to-19-year-old girls. Why? Yes, it’s partly the overturn of Roe—but experts also attribute the increase to growing support for comprehensive sex education in the 2010s. (Alas, sex ed is once again being threatened.)
Pregnancy is increasingly criminalized: There has yet to be a case of a woman prosecuted for the actual act of having an abortion in the U.S.—though there was a high-profile abortion trial in the UK that ended in an acquittal this year before Parliament issued a ban on bringing criminal charges against women having abortions. But several women who’d had miscarriages or self-managed abortions have been arrested and charged with improper disposal of remains and even murder.
Healthcare providers are fleeing red states: In April, the Idaho Statesman ran a story about a doctor shortage in the state—a not-so-surpising result of Idaho’s near-total abortion ban. A similar exodus is happening in Texas, Missouri, and Louisiana. An analysis from the Association of American Medical Colleges found that fewer medical students were applying to residency programs in ban states. In fact, the issue of “OB-GYN deserts” has become so serious that some doctors are secretly traveling out of their states just so they can learn how to perform an abortion.

Grey’s Anatomy can’t hold a candle to the high-stakes medical drama of the last three years. But, as in any good series, there have been some small wins. While abortion rights of patients in red states have been gravely curtailed, protections have actually gotten stronger in many blue states, thanks to laws codifying the right to abortion in state constitutions. And across the country, clear majorities have voted to protect reproductive rights, even in red states like Kansas and Kentucky. This political backlash has pleasantly surprised experts like Jennifer Klein, a professor at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs and the former director of the White House Gender Policy Council, who joined us on IG Live today, and said she was heartened to see that “abortion absolutely matters to voters.” “The level of resilience and ability to organize and fight back” has been surprising, she added, but it also “gives me hope.”

AND:

It’s primary day in New York City, and if you haven’t gone to your polling station to vote (for anyone but Cuomo) then please go do that now! Polls are open until 9 p.m. and we promise to wait for you right here while you go and vote for the next Democratic candidate for mayor who, again, should absolutely not be Andrew Cuomo.
A “fragile” ceasefire is in place after 12 days of missile exchanges between Israel (with support from the U.S.) and Iran. But it would appear that the deal is being held in place with little more than chewing gum, as each party vows retribution for damage done. While it’s been quite an experience waiting for WWIII to erupt (and that is still a possibility, since Israel’s nuclear program remains alive and well) let us not forget that there are still millions of people living under threat of total annihilation.
Palestinian activist and Columbia grad student Mahmoud Khalil was released on bail this weekend after 104 days in ICE detention. The Department of Homeland Security has already filed an appeal of the release and continues to claim that Khalil was involved in “antisemitic activities” without providing evidence to support the claim. In a conversation with NPR, Khalil said the government “had over 100 days to… substantiate these claims with anything” and they did not. “They had to go all the way back to 1952 to justify my deportation.”
The 19th’s Chabeli Carrazana reported this week that childcare costs for two children are exceeding rent and mortgages in some states. The average annual cost of care in the U.S. is just north of $13,000. The four most expensive states for childcare are Hawaii, California, Maryland, and Oregon. New York comes in as the eighth most expensive.
So… we all saw that phone case, right?
Here’s your weekly reminder that we are merely specks floating on a larger speck in space: we now have the first images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which houses the largest camera ever built. The photos show never-before-seen asteroids and a crisp view of ten million galaxies.

COMPOSITE IMAGE OF THE TRIFID AND LAGOON NEBULAE FORMING A SICK PINK CLOUD NEAR THE CONSTELLATION SAGITTARIUS. (SCREENSHOT VIA YOUTUBE)

What Comes After Shock?

Maybe something better—something steelier

BY CINDI LEIVE

PROTESTORS ON LAST YEAR'S DOBBS ANNIVERSARY. (VIA GETTY IMAGES)

You’ve read from my colleagues Nona and Shannon, above, about the realities of life three years after Dobbs. So one more question: How are we feeling?

Three years ago today, with the devastatingly blunt sentence “Roe and Casey are overruled,” Justice Samuel Alito shattered any illusion that women in this country are, at least on paper, seen as full human beings. Reading those words wasn’t surprising—a draft of the decision had been leaked seven weeks earlier and, y’know, there were far earlier signs—but it was shocking, the way losing a loved one comes as a shock no matter how sick you knew they’d been.

The shocks came rapid-fire after that: When my colleagues and I spoke to a woman who was being driven into debt after being forced to continue a debilitating pregnancy—shocking. When Kaitlyn Joshua told her story of being ping-ponged, bleeding, from one Louisiana hospital to another, none willing to treat her—shocking. When a young mom in Alabama confided that she’d been passed a stickie note telling her to travel 580 miles for care—shocking. When Jessica Valenti reported that South Carolina had proposed the death penalty for abortion patients—shocking!

But, as grotesque as it is to admit, I am no longer shocked, and you might not be either. The harrowing recent case of Adriana Smith, the Georgia woman declared brain-dead but kept alive by medical staff because she was pregnant, is the stuff of horror movies, and the kind of case that at a different time and under a different president would have dominated headlines for weeks. But it seemed to me it received only modest coverage—partly because we are now living in a multiplex of horror movies (from ICE to anti-LGBTQ attacks), and partly because, after 36 long months, the shock has just worn off. This is where we are.

So what happens next? On one level, of course, we have to try to retain our capacity to be shocked—to remind each other that using humans as incubators (or seizing people from their workplaces) is the kind of cruelty that may be the norm but will never be normal. I’m grateful to journalists and advocates (from Valenti to the reporters at ProPublica to legislators like Rep. Jasmine Crockett) who use their voices, data and rage to startle us day after day.

But maybe there’s something more effective than shock. After all, medically speaking, when you’re “in shock,” you’re confused, weakened, not playing with a full cognitive deck—and that is the last place we want to be right now. The people I admire in this fight are using their steely resolve, legal brilliance, vast compassion, medical genius and joy every day. They have long abandoned shock, well aware that the rollback of bodily autonomy in this country is part of a well-documented global autocratic playbook in countries like Hungary, Turkey, and Venezuela.

They don’t need us to be stunned. They need us to be alert, and committed, and creative—and together.

What are you feeling on this anniversary? Write us at hello@wearethemeteor and let us know.