The question of the right to abortion has been a key deciding factor in US 2022 mid-term elections. However, this issue is one that may influence black women’s vote the most, since they are disproportionately impacted by the abortion ban.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that Black women are three times more likely to get an abortion than white women.

These midterms are the first since the Dobbs v Jackson decision in June 2022, which marked the reversal of Roe v Wade, a law that federally guaranteed abortion rights across the country.

A recent poll by political research firm Public Opinion Strategies found that 71 percent of Americans prefer Democratic control of Congress to address the issue of abortion. For Black American women, who demonstrated their voting power by securing Biden’s 2021 presidential victory, the threat against abortion rights has been yet another reason to vote Democrat.

Jacqline Battle, an African American healthcare administrative assistant from Portland, said, “Women of colour are more likely to need to obtain an abortion because as a group we are likely to have limited access to healthcare, which includes contraception. That all comes back to the systemic racism that our country was built upon.”

A University of Colorado Boulder report showed banning abortion nationwide would lead to a 21 percent increase in the number of pregnancy-related deaths overall and a 33 percent increase among Black women.

Like many young black women, Jacqline’s primary concern in these midterms is abortion rights. “I live in Oregon which has typically been a blue state. Now, our candidates running for governor are tied in the polls right now and the Republican candidate has said that she is anti-abortion,” she said, admitting that this scares her.

Nigerian American student at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Ezinwa Kalunta-Crumpton, hopes that the threat against abortion rights motivated those who feel strongly about the issue to vote Democrat, to “restore the rights that have been lost”. She likens it to how Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness campaign invited “a larger turnout of student voters” compared to previous years.

Although Dobbs v Jackson may be prompting most black women to vote Democrat, Fernando Pizzaro, Supervising Editor at NPR's Morning Edition, believes that “the winds are blowing towards the Republican party” because “the polls are showing that the cost of living is the biggest concern for voters”, no longer abortion.