Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade

The United States Supreme Court ended constitutional protections of abortion with a decision to overturn the landmark 1973 ruling Roe v Wade, which granted a constitutional right to abortion.

The ruling follows a leaked draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito which suggested the court had come to the decision to overturn Roe. In the final opinion, Alito concluded that Roe and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v Casey, the 1992 decision which reasserted constitutional protections to abortion, were “wrongly decided.”

“We therefore hold that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion,” Alito wrote. “Roe and Casey must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives.”

Laws surrounding the right to abortion are now left for states to individually decide, the ruling stated.

The six to three ruling included support from Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barret. The dissenting justices were Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan.

“With sorrow—for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection—we dissent,” the dissenting justices wrote.