In a decision which has stunned America the US Supreme Court has overturned the near 50 year old legislation which legalised abortion in America.
The 1973 Roe v Wade ruling, legalising abortion in all states, has been overturned by a vote of 5 to 4 meaning any legislation on whether to legalise abortion is enacted at a state level, rather than a national one. The BBC have reported that this could pave the way for up to 26 conservative states to introduce new abortion restrictions or bans.
In early May a leaked leaked draft document written by Justice Samuel Alito concerning Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization gave an indication that Roe v Wade could be overturned to allow individual states to restrict or ban abortion. According to a report by Politico, the document, dated 10th February, states that “the Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision.”
The Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case related to a 2018 Mississippi state law that banned most abortion operations after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy. Previous efforts had prevented enforcement of the law with preliminary injunctions, but the injunctions were based on the 1992 Supreme Court ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which had prevented individual states from banning abortion before a foetus is considered viable, generally within the first 24 weeks. The Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision was made on the basis that a woman’s choice for abortion during that period is protected by rights of privacy under the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution.
In the decision announced on 24th June The Supreme Court wrote that “abortion couldn’t be constitutionally protected. Until the latter part of the 20th century, such a right was entirely unknown in American law. Indeed, when the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted, three quarters of the States made abortion a crime at all stages of pregnancy.”
Protests have erupted around America in response, with many decrying the decision. Writing on Twitter US President Joe Biden said
“Today is a very solemn moment for the United States. The Supreme Court expressly took away a Constitutional right from the American people that it had already recognized. They simply took it away. That’s never been done to a right that is so important to so many Americans.
Make no mistake: Today’s overruling of Roe v. Wade is the culmination of a deliberate effort over decades to upset the balance of our law. It’s a realization of an extreme ideology and a tragic error by the Supreme Court.”
In a poignant comparison, many have taken to social media to express the incredulity of the decision against the continued back drop of gun crime and the inability to enact gun control laws in America.
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