In a ruling by its conservative majority to reverse Roe v. Wade, the US Supreme Court, on Friday, June 24, eliminated constitutional safeguards for abortion that had been in effect for over 50 years.
It is now thought that 26 states will take action to outright prohibit abortion.
The ruling, which was unfathomable only a few years ago, was the result of decades of work by abortion opponents and was made feasible by a court’s right side that has grown more assertive thanks to the appointment of three judges by former President Donald Trump.
The decision was made more than a month after Justice Samuel Alito’s draught opinion was leaked, signalling the court was ready to make this significant move.
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Justice Alito, in the final opinion issued on Friday, wrote that Roe and Planned Parenthood vs Casey, the 1992 decision that reaffirmed the right to abortion, was wrong the day they were decided and must be overturned.
He wrote;
We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision.
The authority to regulate abortion rests with the political branches, not the courts, he added.
What is Roe vs Wade?
The Roe v. Wade decision created a national right to safe and legal abortion at any time prior to a foetus being able to survive outside the womb, often about 24 weeks.
It was founded on the ruling that a woman had the right to choose whether or not to carry her pregnancy to term within the context of family concerns.
The case revolved around Norma McCorvey, whose legal argument made under the alias “Jane Roe” resulted in the historic decision from the US Supreme Court.
In 1969, she was 22 years old, single, jobless, and three times pregnant. At the time, Texas law prohibited abortions except in cases of life-saving circumstances.
The subsequent lawsuit led to the Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling that established abortion rights, though states could still restrict abortion to varying degrees.
Ms McCorvey later became an opponent to abortion.
What happens now Roe vs Wade has been overturned?
With the 1973 ruling overturned, each state will once again have the authority to determine whether abortions are legal and all other pertinent issues.
This effectively prevents millions of women from accessing safe and legal abortions across the nation as Republican-dominated states strive to outlaw the surgery.
Large swaths of the US south and midwest are expected to ban abortion or impose severe restrictions, forcing patients who want the procedure to potentially travel hundreds of miles or self-manage abortions at home.
