On Friday, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the case that legalized abortion across the country.
The 6-3 decision followed a leak of a draft opinion in early May that showed how the justices would likely rule. The leak sparked protests across the country and numerous attacks on pro-life organizations. The leak was also largely the reasoning behind an alleged assassination attempt on Justice Kavanaugh in early June.
The decision came in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a challenge to a Mississippi law that bans abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy except for in cases of medical emergencies or a “severe fetal abnormality.”
“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,” Justice Alito wrote in his majority opinion.
“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division,” Alito wrote. “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
