ROE V WADE OVERTURNED 6-3, ABORTION SUPPORTERS GO BESERK, AMERICA CHEERS
The Supreme Court on Friday overturned Roe v. Wade, effectively ending recognition of a constitutional right to abortion and giving individual states the power to allow, limit, or ban the practice altogether.
The ruling came in the court's opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which centered on a Mississippi law that banned abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The Republican-led state of Mississippi asked the Supreme Court to strike down a lower court ruling that stopped the 15-week abortion ban from taking place.
"We end this opinion where we began. Abortion presents a profound moral question. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives," Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the court's opinion.
The Supreme Court overturned the half-century-old ruling in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortions nationwide, giving states the power to determine limits on when a woman can terminate a pregnancy.
"The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives," a syllabus of the opinion said.
In a decision released Friday, the justices voted 6-3 to uphold Mississippi's ban on abortion after 15 weeks.
The reasoning for the opinion came down to a 5-1-3 split with Justice Samuel Alito writing the majority ruling overturning Roe, while Chief Justice John Roberts concurred in his own opinion but wanted a narrower ruling that focused on upholding Mississippi's ban. Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan dissented.
DOBBS DECISION OVERTURNING ROE V WADE JUNE 24 2022