In a decision that is likely to have massive implications in the United States, the US Supreme Court on Friday overturned the landmark 1973 ruling of Roe v. Wade on the issue of abortion in a 6:3 decision. Nearly fifty years after an American woman’s constitutional right to an abortion was recognized, the Supreme Court effectively abolished this right entirely, allowing states to impose restrictions on abortion. Is.
What is Roe v. Wade?
Two Texas-based attorneys, Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee, were dealing with a number of cases regarding abortion litigation in America during the 1970s. In the course of his affairs, he decided to file a lawsuit stating that abortion was medically necessary for women. They needed a plaintiff who would help them build a valid case before the court. His first plaintiff was a married couple who agreed to come on board, but the woman was not pregnant.
In June 1969, he met 21-year-old Norma McCorvey, who was pregnant with their third child at the time. She eventually became his prime plaintiff in the case, even though she was not able to get an abortion in time and did not engage in any verbal arguments.
33 years later, at the age of 55, she filed an affidavit in a Texas district court that she had joined the case ‘without fully understanding its implications’. When she first met Weddington and Coffee, he asked her “Norma, don’t you think abortion should be legal?”
In her affidavit, she said, “Unsure, I replied that I did not know. In fact, I did not know what the word abortion really meant”.
The lawyers reportedly told him that they had met two or three other women but they did not meet their criteria. She asked him what criteria she was made to meet, they replied “You’re white, you’re young, pregnant and you want an abortion”.
The lawsuit was filed in the Texas District Court in 1970 on McCorvey’s behalf under the pseudonym ‘Jane Roe’. The defendant was County District Attorney Henry Wade. In June 1970, the court ruled in favor of Jane Roe, saying that Texas’s law against abortion violated her right to privacy, but did not grant an injunction that would allow McCorvey to have an abortion.
1973 Landmark Ruling
An appeal was later filed with the Supreme Court in 1970, and in January 1973, in a 7:2 decision, the US Supreme Court held that women in the United States had the right to choose whether they wanted to have an abortion. The decision in favor of Jane Roe spoke extensively against excessive government controls and restrictions and upheld the individual’s right to life and liberty. The decision was authored by Justice Harry Blackmun. The decision relied heavily on an earlier 1965 ruling that banned state-imposed contraceptives and upheld the freedom of married couples to use contraceptives without government restrictions.
Why has the decision been overturned?
The US Supreme Court has now, in a 6:3 decision, overturned Roe v Wade in a case called ‘Planned Parenthood v Casey’, which held that the Constitution makes no reference to abortion and that no such right is any constitutional right. is not impliedly protected by the provision.
The majority opinion was drafted by Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Connie Barrett. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote a different but agreed opinion. Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan disagreed.
Minutes after the ruling, states across the US began banning abortions and more states are expected to follow suit in the coming days. Reports suggest that nearly half of the states in the US are expected to be affected. Last month, a draft opinion of the judgment was leaked which indicated that such a verdict could come from the top court.
Abortion rights activists across the country have criticized the decision and raised serious concerns about its impact. We President Joe Biden, who addressed the nation shortly after the verdict was announcedCalled it a ‘sad day for the country’.