Written by: Kai Cabrera
Published: July 5, 2022
KEY POINTS
1. On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) overturned Roe v. Wade, ultimately removing the constitutional right to abortion.
2. Justice Samuel Alito, representing the court majority, wrote that the 1972 Roe ruling and the subsequent high court decision reaffirming Roe "must be overruled."
3. Alito states that the past rulings were "egregiously wrong," while the arguments upholding them were "exceptionally weak" and "damaging." He also notes that it is comparable to "an abuse of judicial authority."What is Roe v. Wade?
In 1970, Jane Roe (a pseudonym used by the court to protect the plaintiff’s real identity) filed a lawsuit against the district attorney of Dallas County, Texas, Henry Wade.
The lawsuit essentially challenged a Texas law that criminalized abortion except when a doctor ordered it to save a woman’s life.
Roe stated that the state laws were unconstitutionally vague and minimized her right to personal privacy, which is protected by the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments.
In their final decision, SCOTUS decided to divide pregnancies into three trimesters.
In the first trimester of a pregnancy, the state is not allowed to regulate abortion. The decision to abort is allocated to only the pregnant woman and her attending physician.
In the second trimester, the state may impose regulations, keeping in mind that they are reasonably related to maternal health.
In the third trimester, the state is allowed to either regulate abortions or prohibit them entirely, with the added exception of cases when abortion is necessary to save the life or health of the mother.
What does the overruling mean?
With the overruling of Roe v. Wade, the constitutional right to an abortion is stripped off.
22 U.S. states already have laws to propose that will outlaw abortion in all or most cases, with four more states likely leaning in the same direction. It is estimated that roughly 33 million child-bearing women are about to lose access to abortion in their home states.
The decisions of the remaining eight states are still unclear.
New Mexico, however, will allegedly pass legislation protecting its abortion access, according to researchers at Brookings Institution.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has also stated that abortion access will remain legal and safe as long as he is the incumbent, but the electoral battle over his successor next year might change the fate of abortion in the state.
What does the public say?
Recent polls conducted after SCOTUS’ decision show that the majority of the public disapproves of the overruling.
Monmouth University’s survey released last June 28 showed that 60% of U.S. adults are against SCOTUS’ decision, with only 37% approving. It is also noted that there’s also a number of Americans strongly disapproving of the overruling, with 84% of Democrats and 58% of Republicans.
Additionally, the CBS/YouGov survey revealed that roughly 52% of Americans believe that the decision is a step backward for the country, and 51% of them believe that it will make the lives of most American women worse.
What’s next?
U.S. activists fear that other rights, such as same-sex marriage, same-sex relationships, and contraceptives, might be next.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas called for the reconsideration of Griswold v. Connecticut, Lawrence v. Texas, and Obergefell v. Hodges.
"In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court's substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell. Because any substantive due process decision is "demonstrably erroneous," we have a duty to "correct the error" established in those precedents," he wrote.
Griswold v. Connecticut was a Supreme Court case that ruled that the Constitution protects the liberty of married couples to buy and use contraceptives without government regulations.
Lawrence v. Texas ruled that sodomy laws across the U.S. are unconstitutional, making same-sex sexual acts legal.
Lastly, Obergefell v. Hodges was a civil rights case that ultimately led SCOTUS to rule that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples.
Sources:
Alfonseca, K. (2022, June 25). Supreme Court opens door to overturning rights to contraceptives, same-sex relationships and marriage. ABC News. Retrieved July 1, 2022, from https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/supreme-court-opens-door-overturning-rights-contraceptives-sex/story?id=85639162
Butler, K., Benhamou, M., Dottle, R., Lin, J. C. F., Merrill, D., Sam, C., & Wahid, R. (2022, June 24). Supreme Court Ruling Jeopardizes Abortion Access for 33 Million Women. Bloomberg.com. Retrieved July 1, 2022, from https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2022-supreme-court-roe-v-wade-abortion-access/
Edwards-Levy, A. (2022, June 28). Majorities disapprove of Roe v. Wade Reversal and Democrats are motivated, polls show. CNN. Retrieved July 1, 2022, from https://edition.cnn.com/2022/06/28/politics/roe-v-wade-polling/index.html
Roe v. Wade. Oyez. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.oyez.org/cases/1971/70-18
Totenberg, N., & McCammon, S. (2022, June 24). Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, ending right to abortion upheld for decades. NPR. Retrieved July 1, 2022, from https://www.npr.org/2022/06/24/1102305878/supreme-court-abortion-roe-v-wade-decision-overturn