Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade allows US states to set their own laws or to ban all abortions
AGN.News Team
June 24, 2022
WASHINGTON (AGN.News) – The United States Supreme Court announced the end of Roe v. Wade, case 410 U.S. 113 (1973), a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court.
What was the Roe v. Wade case?
The Roe v. Wade case, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States generally protects a pregnant woman’s liberty or right to choose to have an abortion.
The case of Roe v. Wade was brought by Norma McCorvey—known by the legal pseudonym “Jane Roe”—who in 1969 became pregnant with her third child. McCorvey wanted an abortion but lived in Texas, where abortion was illegal except when necessary to save the mother’s life.
Her attorneys, Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee, filed a lawsuit on her behalf in U.S. federal court against her local district attorney, Henry Wade, alleging that Texas’s abortion laws were unconstitutional.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled in her favor and declared the relevant Texas abortion statutes unconstitutional. The parties appealed this ruling to the Supreme Court of the United States.
On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court issued a 7–2 decision holding that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects a pregnant woman’s right to an abortion. But the Court also held that the right to abortion is not absolute and must be balanced against the government’s interests in protecting women’s health and prenatal life.
The Court resolved these competing interests by announcing a trimester timetable to govern all abortion regulations in the United States. During the first trimester, governments could not regulate abortion at all, except to require that abortions be performed by a licensed physician.
During the second trimester, governments could regulate the abortion procedure, but only for the purpose of protecting maternal health and not for protecting fetal life.
After viability (which includes the third trimester of pregnancy and the last few weeks of the second trimester), abortions could be regulated and even prohibited, but only if the laws provided exceptions for abortions necessary to save the “life” or “health” of the mother.
What was Planned Parenthood v. Casey?
Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992), was a landmark case of the Supreme Court of the United States regarding abortion. Case was argued April 22, 1992 and decided June 29, 1992.
In a plurality opinion, the Court upheld a right to have an abortion that was established in Roe v. Wade (1973), and altered the standard for analyzing restrictions on that right, crafting the undue burden standard for abortion restrictions.
The case arose from a challenge to five provisions of the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act of 1982; among the provisions were requirements for a waiting period, spousal notice, and (for minors) parental consent prior to undergoing an abortion procedure.
In a plurality opinion jointly written by associate justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Anthony Kennedy, and David Souter, the Supreme Court upheld the “essential holding” of Roe, which was that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment protects a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion prior to viability.
The 2022 case before the Supreme Court
The case before the court is: No. 19–1392. Argued December 1, 2021—Decided June 24, 2022. The case: Mississippi’s Gestational Age Act provides that “[e]xcept in a medical emergency or in the case of a severe fetal abnormality, a person shall not intentionally or knowingly perform . . . or induce an abortion of an unborn human being if the probable gestational age of the unborn human being has been determined to be greater than fifteen (15) weeks.” Miss. Code Ann. §41–41–191.
Court Overturns Roe v. Wade and Casey
On Friday, June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. In a 6-3 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the nation’s high court concluded that the U.S. Constitution does not guarantee a right to abortion.
The Supreme Court ruling:
We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. 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. That provision has been held to guarantee some rights that are not mentioned in the Constitution, but any such right must be “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition” and “implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.”
What has been the reaction?
In one of the most momentous and controversial decisions of the last few decades, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down their decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022.
Anti-abortion activists celebrated positively outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. after the decision came down. Pro-life activists said they support the right to life for the unborn.
Abortion rights demonstrators reacted negatively outside the Supreme Court to the overturning of landmark decision of Roe v. Wade, but are determined to go forward in full support of a woman’s right to choose. Many expressed their support for a woman’s right to determine what to do with her own body.
The decision was no surprise to both groups. All across America, people have expressed their support for the decision and on the other side many have voiced their disapproval of the decision. From political leaders, civic leaders, community leaders, celebrities, husbands, wives, young adults, and people from all walks of life, have come both positive and negative reactions.
The decision was no surprise
Protest all over the country have been going on for nearly two months. A leaked document of the coming decision lead to mass protest around the Supreme Court building for weeks.
On June 24, 2022, in the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court overturned both Roe and Casey by a vote of 6–3.
The Dobbs decision had been anticipated since May 2, 2022, when a draft opinion in the case was leaked by the news media. Chief Justice John Roberts confirmed the leaked document was authentic the following day, May 3, 2022.
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AGN.News Team
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