Pro-abortion activists rallied outside the Supreme Court. Photo: REUTERS
The US Supreme Court on Friday overturned the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling abolished the legal right to abortion. So, nearly 50 years of legal protection for termination of pregnancy.
The ruling comes more than a month after the surprising leak of a draft opinion from Judge Samuel Alito indicating that the court was ready to take this important step. The final grade was 5 to 4.
The decision, unthinkable just a few years ago, comes as the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponentswhich were made possible by a conservative majority in the highest court, fortified by three judges appointed by former President Donald Trump.
US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the majority opinion that he decided to cancel the right to abortion. Photo: AP
According to most polls, the Supreme Court ruling represents the opinion of a smaller fringe in the country, as a majority of Americans were in favor of preserving the right to abortion.
Alito, in the final opinion issued on Friday, said so Eggs and Planned Parenthood v. Caseythe 1992 ruling which reaffirmed the right to abortion, was wrong and should be deleted. According to the judge, the power to regulate abortion corresponds to political power and not in court.
Along with Alito, Judges Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, the last three nominated by Trump, voted to overturn the ruling. Thomas, a court legend, first voted to overthrow Roe 30 years ago.
Anti-abortion activists celebrated outside the Supreme Court to hear the ruling repealing the right to abortion. Photo: REUTERS
The Biden administration and other abortion rights advocates have warned that the decision to overthrow Roe would also would threaten other High Court decisions for gay rights and even, potentially, for contraception.
But Alito wrote it in the draft opinion his analysis refers only to abortion, not to other rights that also derive from a right to privacy that the judge affirmed to be implicitly protected by the Constitution. Abortion is different, Alito wrote, because of the singular moral question it raises.
The first sign that the Court could overturn the constitutional right to abortion came at the end of the summer, when the judges voted 5-4 to allow Texas to ban abortion around six weeks of gestation, before some women knew they were pregnant.
The controversy revolved around the law’s unique structure, including its application by private citizens rather than state officials, and how it can be challenged in court.
Outside the court, disappointment can be seen among those who supported the legal right to abortion. Photo: REUTERS
Effects of abortion abortion in the United States
The sentence should affect disproportionate to female minoritieswho already have limited access to healthcare, according to statistics analyzed by Associated Press.
Thirteen states, mostly in the South and Midwest, have already done so laws prohibiting abortion in case Roe is canceled. Another half-dozen states have nearly total bans or bans after 6 weeks of pregnancy, before many women even know they are pregnant.
In about half a dozen other states, the struggle will focus on dormant bans on abortion enacted prior to the 1973 Roe ruling, or on new proposals to drastically limit when abortions can be performed.
Source: AP
Source: Clarin
