In a 6-3 decision on Friday, the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade, the historic judgment that had established the constitutional right to an abortion in the United States in 1973.
The court’s controversial but anticipated decision grants each state the freedom to enact its abortion regulations without worrying about breaking Roe, which had legalized abortions during the first two trimesters of pregnancy.
As a result of the Supreme Court’s ruling, which is connected to a new Mississippi abortion law with extremely harsh restrictions, over half of the states are anticipated to abolish or severely restrict abortion.
Other states intend to keep their more lenient restrictions on abortions.
Abortion opponents applauded a result that they had long hoped for while pro-abortion supporters instantly denounced the judgment.
The majority opinion that overturned Roe and the 1992 ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which upheld the right to an abortion, was written by Justice Samuel Alito, as was to be expected.
The five other conservative justices on the high court joined Alito in that decision, including Chief Justice John Roberts, whose support for overturning Roe had long been questioned.
Along with Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, the majority also included three justices that former President Donald Trump had selected.
Three of the court’s liberal justices dissented from the decision and swiftly attracted protesters to the Supreme Court’s Capitol Hill headquarters in Washington, D.C.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” Alito wrote. “The Constitution does not refer to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely — the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,”
The verdict was rendered a day after the Supreme Court overturned a century-old New York rule that had made it extremely challenging for anyone to obtain a license to carry a pistol outside of their homes.
