United States

Johanna Gohmann: ‘For so many people in the US, what made sense now feels submerged, buried and gone’

As women’s rights are rolled back and politicians ensure measures to protect citizens from mass shooters are overruled, it’s hard not to feel that the US has slipped, Twilight Zone-like, into a different dimension

Abortion rights supporters demonstrate outside the US Supreme Court in Washington DC after its decision to overturn Roe v Wade. Picture: Getty

Back in 2008, my husband (who is from Newry) and I were living together in Dublin. And I can remember whenever the topic of abortion came up in conversation with someone, it felt as if someone had just dropped a lead curtain over the room. People would grow quiet. And my husband would give me a look – the look he sometimes gave me to let me know that this was something in his country ...