The US Supreme Court has been officially quashed Roe to Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that established a constitutional right to abortion. Now the matter will be settled on a state-by-state basis, with 22 states likely to soon ban all or nearly all abortions.
The road to the 6-3 decision began when the state of Mississippi banned almost all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. State law conflicted with the Court’s ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) that pregnant people have the right to terminate their pregnancy until the fetus is ‘viable’. But Judge Samuel Alito’s opinion is in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturn that norm and roeâ€
“The Constitution does not grant the right to abortion; roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives,” the decision reads.
The six Republican appointees voted to overturn nearly 50 years of precedent, with the Court’s three liberals disagreeing. As cafemadrid’s Anna North Explained in 2020 when the newest conservative judge joined the court, the end of roe probably won’t end abortion in states that forbid it – just legal abortion. And, North wrote, that will have “devastating consequences for many people, especially low-income Americans and people of color in red states.”
Alito’s advice is similar to a draft advice obtained and published by Politico in May — a largely unprecedented leak that upset the Court and the nation. But even before the leak, the conservative vast majority of the Court had repeatedly signaled their willingness to turn around roe and allow states to ban abortionsâ€
This is a latest news item; cafemadrid coverage is evolving. Read the full text of Alito’s opinion on the The court’s website hereor belowâ€