The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned its 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide for nearly 50 years. The ruling came in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
The case challenged Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, and whether it was unconstitutional. It was enacted in 2018 but was blocked after a federal court challenge.
The state of Mississippi asked the high court to uphold its law and directly challenged the precedent in Roe and the 1992 Casey v. Planned Parenthood that held that states cannot ban pre-viability abortions, those done before a child can survive outside the womb.
Friday’s outcome is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.
The decision, unthinkable just a few years ago, was the culmination of decades of efforts by pro-life advocates.
The ruling came more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the court was prepared to take this momentous step.
Alito, in the final opinion issued Friday, wrote that Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that reaffirmed the right to abortion, were wrong the day they were decided and must be overturned.
“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,” Alito wrote.
Authority to regulate abortion rests with the political branches, not the courts, Alito wrote.
Joining Alito were Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. The latter three justices are Trump appointees. Thomas first voted to overrule Roe 30 years ago.
Chief Justice John Roberts would have stopped short of ending the abortion right, noting that he would have upheld the Mississippi law at the heart of the case, a ban on abortion after 15 weeks, and said no more.
Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan — the diminished liberal wing of the court — were in dissent.
“With sorrow—for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection—we dissent,” they wrote.
As CBN News has reported, since Roe has been overturned by the high court, thirteen states have trigger laws in place to prohibit abortion. The issue will now shift to the state legislatures.
Those existing laws have been estimated to possibly close approximately 202 clinics or 26% of all publicly advertised abortion facilities in the U.S., according to a recent study from Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH), a program within the University of California San Francisco’s Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health.
According to the study, among all U.S. states, California had the most abortion facilities, with 168 open facilities as of 2021, followed by New York (89) and Florida (55).
California alone had more abortion facilities than the 34 states with the fewest number of them combined and nearly as many clinics as could be found in the entire South, according to the study.
As CBN News has reported, California is moving to dramatically expand and fund the number of abortions performed in the state. It is nationally known for its pro-abortion laws and policies and is positioning itself to serve as an abortion destination for women in states that would implement abortion bans in a post-Roe America.
California has even set up its own advisory Future of Abortion Council, a coalition of 40 pro-abortion groups whose goal is “to Protect, Strengthen, and Expand Abortion Services in California.”
Pro-Life Advocates, Organizations, And Individuals Respond
Friday’s ruling was applauded by pro-life organizations and advocates across the country.
In a statement, Franklin Graham, president, and CEO of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association said: “The United States Supreme Court just announced one of the most significant rulings in my lifetime—officially voting to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision because it was ‘egregiously wrong from the start,’ as stated by Justice Samuel Alito. The radical left is calling for a ‘night of rage,’ pregnancy centers are already being vandalized and attacked, and our U.S. Supreme Court justices are being targeted with threats and intimidation.
“Roe v. Wade, passed 49 years ago, has resulted in the deaths of over 63 million innocent children in this country. Sadly, this decision is not an end to abortion—it pushes the battle back to the states,” Graham continued. “My prayer is that every state will enact protections for children in the womb and that our nation will value life and recognize the rights of our most vulnerable.”
The remainder of this article is available in its entirety at CBN
