The U.S. Supreme Court formally overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday, saying that the constitutional Abortion rights to an abortion, which had been affirmed for over 50 years, were no longer valid.
Justice Samuel Alito, who penned the majority opinion for the court, stated that the 1973 Roe decision and subsequent high court decisions affirming it “must be overruled” because they were “egregiously wrong,” the arguments were “exceptionally weak,” and they were so “damaging” that they amounted to “an abuse of judicial authority.”
The ruling, the majority of which was made public in early May, implies that abortion rights will be immediately restricted in almost half of the states, with other limitations certain to follow. Abortion won’t be accessible in a sizable portion of the nation. The ruling may also imply that both the court and the abortion debate will be in the spotlight during the forthcoming fall elections as well as throughout the rest of the year.
Justice Clarence Thomas, a Bush appointee, and the three Trump appointees, Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, joined the Alito opinion. Only Chief Justice John Roberts, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, concurred in the ruling; he would have limited the ruling to uphold the Mississippi law at issue in the case, which forbade abortions after 15 weeks. He described the decision as “a serious jolt to the legal system” and claimed that both the majority and the dissent showed “a relentless freedom from doubt on the legal issue that I cannot share.”
Stephen Breyer, a justice nominated by President Clinton, as well as Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, picked by President Obama, dissented. Young women today would mature with fewer abortion rights than their mothers and grandmothers, according to the court’s ruling, the said. Indeed, they said that the court’s ruling indicates that A woman has no abortion rights whatsoever beginning with fertilization. Even at the greatest personal and familial expense, the state has the power to order women to carry a pregnancy to term.
Numerous States Have Also Enacted Gestational Restrictions, Which Prohibit Abortion Rights
Gestational bans, which forbid abortion at various stages of pregnancy, have also been passed by many states in recent years. Due to legal challenges, many of those laws—including those that forbid abortions beyond six weeks of pregnancy in Georgia, Ohio, and Idaho—have been halted by courts. This legislation might now be implemented right away. In the same way, a recent Oklahoma law that makes conducting an abortion a crime punishable by a jail sentence might be considered.
Other limitations could place limits on who can get an abortion, where they can get it, and how it can be done. Some examples include legislation requiring parental notification or consent for abortions involving minor patients; additional health restrictions for doctors and clinics that many medical groups deem unnecessary, expensive, and challenging to comply with.
