US Supreme Court ends abortion rights; allows states to ban it

By Team Newsable | First Published Jun 24, 2022, 8:29 PM IST

The Supreme Court verdict comes a shot in the arm for Republicans and handing a momentous victory to Republicans and religious conservatives who had been rooting against abortion.

The US Supreme Court on Friday overturned the Roe vs Wade verdict, the landmark ruling that established the constitutional right to abortion in the country in 1973. The ruling puts an end to nearly 50-year-old constitutional protections for abortion.

The Supreme Court verdict comes a shot in the arm for Republicans and handed a momentous victory to Republicans and religious conservatives who had been rooting against abortion.

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The 6-3 court ruling upheld a Republican-backed Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks. Three of the judges on the Supreme Court bench -- Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett -- were appointed by President Joe Biden's predecessor and Republican Donald Trump. The three judges to give a verdict against the over-ruling of the Wade Vs Roe verdict were Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

The Roe vs Wade judgment reinforced that the right to personal privacy under the US Constitution protected a woman's ability to terminate her pregnancy. The Supreme Court, in another ruling in 1992, reaffirmed abortion rights and prohibited laws that imposed an "undue burden" on abortion access.

However, the Supreme Court justices on Friday held that the Roe vs Wade decision that allowed abortions performed between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy was flawed as the US Constitution does not make any specific mention of abortion rights.

The court ruling comes even as opinion polls suggested that a majority of Americans were in favour of abortion rights and wanted the Roe vs Wade verdict upheld.

To note, 13 American states already have laws that ban abortion if Roe vs Wade verdict was ever overturned. Another half a dozen states have near-total bans or prohibitions after 6 weeks of pregnancy. Considering that more than 90 per cent of abortions in the United States take place in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, the Supreme Court verdict has come as a major blow, especially to women with limited access to health care.

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