Supreme Court decides abortion not protected by constitution
(NATIONAL) The ruling of Roe v. Wade and subsequent ruling of Planned Parenthood v. Casey have been overturned by the Supreme Court, effectively ending constitutionally guaranteed abortion rights in the U.S.
The decision came through the Supreme Court’s ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health organization on Friday, involving an abortion ban in Mississippi.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the opinion of the court. “The Constitution makes no reference 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.”
Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett joined in the judgement.
Chief Justice Thomas Roberts concurred.
SCOTUS didn’t hold back on it’s thoughts on Roe, calling it “egregiously wrong and on a collision course with the Constitution from the day it was decided”.
“It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives,” Alito wrote in the opinion. “The permissibility of abortion, and the limitations, upon it, are to be resolved like most important questions in our democracy: by citizens trying to persuade one another and then voting.
Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan filed a dissenting opinion.
The decision has come as a shock to many, despite the leak of a draft of the decision in May of this year.
President Joe Biden disagreed with the decision, saying he believed Roe v. Wade was the correct decision as a matter of constitutional law.
"I’ve warned about how this decision risks the broader right to privacy for everyone," Biden said. "That’s because Roe recognized the fundamental right to privacy that has served as the basis for so many more rights that we have come to take — we’ve come to take for granted that are ingrained in the fabric of this country: the right to make the best decisions for your health; the right to use birth control — a married couple — in the privacy of their bedroom, for God’s sake; the right to marry the person you love."
Biden said no executive action from the President could restore the protections of Roe v. Wade as federal law, and that people needed to vote lawmakers in who would support that at the polls if they wanted that to happen.
Meanwhile, states like Oklahoma celebrated the SCOTUS decision on Friday.
“My first major act as Oklahoma’s Attorney General was to urge the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn their decisions in Roe and Casey,” Oklahoam Attorney General O’Connor said. “Today, in an historic opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court did just that. After almost 50 years, and over 60 million lost lives, the U.S. Supreme Court finally returned policy making on this life and death issue to the people. I am grateful the Court demonstrated the courage to issue this landmark decision in the face of an unprecedented campaign of violence and intimidation.”
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