The Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 on Friday to overturn Roe V. Wade, which has provided the constitutional right to abortion for more than 50 years in the United States.
Conservative leaning Associate Justice Samuel Alito wrote “The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely — the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
The monumental decision means abortion laws are now soley in the hands of state lawmakers and some states are already taking measures to ban abortion all together or limit it.
Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, and Clarence Thomas also supported the ruling. Justices Stephen Breyer, John Roberts, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor all voted to uphold Roe v. Wade.
Anti-Abortion Groups Celebrate
Anti-abortion activists celebrated the decision, which they have been fighting for for years. Outside of a Planned Parenthood in St. Louis, supporters of the Supreme Court decision celebrated. Mary Maschmeier, the leader of the anti-abortion group, Defenders of the Unborn, said, “I never thought I would see this day when Missouri would not kill it’s children.”
Missouri is just one of the states that had a “trigger law” in place that effectively banned abortion following the decision.Other states with these laws include Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Many other states are quickly following suit.
Soon after the decision was handed down protestors made their way to the Supreme Court. These protests continued to erupted across the country from Times Square to Los Angeles. In Arizona, tear gas had to be used after protestors reportedly refused to leave the capitol building.
President Joe Biden called the decision “a tragic error” and vows that the administration will fight this ruling by helping to elect politicians who support pro choice legislation.
