The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday, eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion.
The decision came down to a 6-3 majority, with all three of the court’s liberal justices in dissent. Justice Samuel Alito wrote the opinion on the case, and Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett joined. Justice Thomas, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and Chief Justice John Roberts filed concurring opinions, NPR reports. Three of the majority opinions were written by nominees of former President Donald Trump.
“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Justice Alito wrote in his majority opinion. “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.”
The decision was expected after a draft written by Alito was leaked earlier this year and ends nearly half a century of constitutional protections for abortions. Now, reproductive rights will be decided by states. According to the Associated Press, bans are expected in roughly half the states in the U.S. This could lead to hundreds of preventable pregnancy-related deaths across the country, NBC News reported in May.
Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan wrote a joint dissent criticizing the majority decision. In their closing, they wrote: “With sorrow — for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection — we dissent.”
This is a developing story…
