Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that said women had a ...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that said women had a constitutional right to abortion. President Joe Biden criticised the decision, which will have a huge impact on the lives of millions of American women and make things even worse in a country that is already very divided.
With a vote of 6-3, the court upheld a Republican-backed Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The decision was made possible by the court's conservative majority. By a vote of 5-4, Roe was overturned. Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative, wrote separately that he would have upheld the Mississippi law without also getting rid of the Roe precedent.
The decision will have effects far beyond the high-security courtroom. It could change the political landscape in November's elections, which will decide whether Biden's fellow Democrats keep control of Congress, and it could show that the justices are now more willing to change other long-established rights.
The decision will also make people argue more about the legitimacy of the court, which used to be an untouchable pillar of the American democratic system but is now being questioned more and more for making more conservative decisions on a wide range of issues.
The ruling gave states back their right to ban abortion. Twenty-six states are sure to ban abortion or are likely to do so. Mississippi is one of 13 states with "trigger laws" that would make abortion illegal if Roe were to be overturned.
In a concurring opinion that made people worry that the justices might take away other rights, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas asked the court to think again about past decisions that protect the right to contraception, make gay marriage legal all over the country, and throw out state laws that ban gay sex.
In a ruling written by conservative Justice Samuel Alito, the justices said that the Roe decision, which allowed abortions before a foetus could live outside the womb (between 24 and 28 weeks), was wrong because the U.S. Constitution doesn't say anything about abortion rights.
Women with unwanted pregnancies in large parts of the U.S. may now have to choose between going to another state where the procedure is still legal and available, buying abortion pills online, or having an illegal abortion, which could be dangerous.
In a concurring opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh seemed to reject the idea that the next step is for the court to say that the Constitution makes abortion illegal. This is something that some people who are against abortion have said should happen. "Abortion is neither banned nor allowed by the Constitution," Kavanaugh wrote.
Kavanaugh also said that the ruling doesn't let states stop people from getting an abortion in another state or punish people for abortions they had in the past.
'SAD DAY'
Biden said that the decision was "extreme and dangerous" and that he did not agree with it.
Biden said at the White House, "It's a sad day for the court and for the country." "The court did something it had never done before: it took away a constitutional right that is so important to so many Americans.
The Democratic president also said that giving states the power to ban abortions makes the United States different from other developed countries when it comes to protecting reproductive rights.
Biden asked Congress to pass a law protecting the right to have an abortion, which is unlikely given how divided Congress is along partisan lines. Biden said that his administration will protect women's access to medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, like pills for birth control and abortion pills. They will also fight against efforts to stop women from going to other states to get abortions.
Britain, France, and a few other countries said the decision was a step backward, but the Vatican said it was a good thing because it made the world think about life issues.
Some U.S. companies, like Walt Disney Co, AT&T (T.N), and the parent company of Facebook, Meta Platforms Inc, have said they will pay for their employees' travel costs if they now need to get an abortion.
'DAMAGING CONSEQUENCES'
In May, a draught of Alito's ruling was leaked, showing that the court was ready to overturn Roe. This caused a political firestorm. The ruling from Friday mostly followed this leaked draught.
"The Constitution says nothing about abortion, and no part of the Constitution implicitly protects this right," Alito wrote in the ruling.
In Roe v. Wade, it was decided that a woman's right to privacy in the Constitution protects her ability to end a pregnancy. In a ruling from 1992 called Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, the Supreme Court said that abortion rights were still legal and that laws that made getting an abortion too hard were against the law. The Casey decision was also overturned by Friday's decision.
"Roe was wrong from the very beginning. It had very weak reasons for doing what it did, and the decision has hurt people. And instead of bringing a national solution to the abortion issue, Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Wade have sparked more debate and made things worse "Alito added.
Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan, the three liberal justices on the court, wrote a joint dissenting opinion.
"No matter how specific the new laws are, today's decision is sure to limit women's rights and their status as free and equal citizens," they wrote.
As a result of the decision on Friday, "A woman has no rights at all from the moment she is fertilised. A state can force a woman to carry a pregnancy to term, even if it hurts her or her family very much "the justices on the left said.
The decision came just one day after the court's conservative majority made another decision that made it harder for states to put restrictions on guns.
The rulings on abortion and guns showed how divided Americans are on a wide range of issues, such as race and voting rights.
Christian conservatives and many Republican officeholders have wanted to overturn Roe for a long time. Former President Donald Trump, for example, promised as a candidate in 2016 to put people on the Supreme Court who would overturn Roe. During his term, he put three people on the court, and all of them agreed with the majority's decision.
In an interview with Fox News, Trump was asked if he should get some credit for the decision. He said, "God made the decision."
A tall security fence surrounded the courthouse, where a lot of people were gathering. After the ruling, people who were against abortion started to cheer, while some people who were for abortion rights started to cry.
Emma Craig, 36, of Pro Life San Francisco, said, "I'm so happy." "Abortion is the biggest tragedy of our generation, and we'll feel bad about the 50 years we've lived with Roe v. Wade."
Even hours after the decision, people who didn't like it were still protesting outside the court, as were crowds in cities all over the country, including New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, and Seattle.
Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, criticised the decision. She said that a "Republican-controlled Supreme Court" had reached the "dark and extreme goal" of taking away women's right to make their own decisions about their reproductive health.
The number of abortions in the U.S. went up by 8% in the three years ending in 2020, reversing a 30-year trend of falling numbers. This is according to data released on June 15 by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.
