As widely anticipated, the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that legalized abortion in the U.S. A draft decision that had been leaked some weeks ago set the stage for the release of the final opinion on June 24. The opinion was written by Justice Samuel Alito, who had prepared the draft that had been leaked.
The decision takes away the Constitutional right for a woman to have an abortion that had been established some 50 years ago when Roe v. Wade was decided. It is the first time in history that the Supreme Court has taken away a Constitutional right. The court was divided five to four in the decision, with five conservative justices supporting the overturning of Roe and the three liberal justices dissenting.
Chief Justice John Roberts, instead of joining with the five conservatives, wrote separately that while he agreed with the court’s judgment, he had questions about some of the logic that went into reaching the conclusion and was refraining from voting with the majority.
“Both the Court”™s opinion and the dissent display a relentless freedom from doubt on the legal issue that I cannot share. I am not sure, for example, that a ban on terminating a pregnancy from the moment of conception must be treated the same under the Constitution as a ban after fifteen weeks,” Roberts wrote.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote separately that after having overturned Roe the justices should now “reconsider all of this Court”™s substantive due process precedents.” Thomas specially suggested reviewing and deciding whether to eliminate three rights: the right to marry whomever one chooses (same sex marriages); the right to use contraceptives; and the right to engage in private consensual sexual acts.
In the opinion, Alito wrote, “Until the latter part of the 20th century, there was no support in American law for a constitutional right to obtain an abortion. No state constitutional provision had recognized such a right. Until a few years before Roe, no federal or state court had recognized such a right. Nor had any scholarly treatise. Indeed, abortion had long been a crime in every single State. At common law, abortion was criminal in at least some stages of pregnancy and was regarded as unlawful and could have very serious consequences at all stages. American law followed the common law until a wave of statutory restrictions in the 1800s ex- panded criminal liability for abortions. By the time the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted, three-quarters of the States had made abor- tion a crime at any stage of pregnancy. This consensus endured until the day Roe was decided.”
In writing the majority opinion, Justice Alito blasted the reasoning used by the earlier Supreme Court when it established Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to make her own reproductive choices as the law of the land.
“Without any grounding in the constitutional text, history, or precedent, Roe imposed on the entire country a detailed set of rules for pregnancy divided into trimesters much like those that one might expect to find in a statute or regulation,” Alito wrote. “Roe”™s failure even to note the overwhelming consensus of state laws in effect in 1868 is striking, and what it said about the common law was simply wrong. Then, after surveying history, the opinion spent many paragraphs conducting the sort of factfinding that might be undertaken by a legislative committee, and did not explain why the sources on which it relied shed light on the meaning of the Constitution. As to precedent, citing a broad array of cases, the Court found support for a constitutional ‘right of personal privacy.’ But Roe conflated the right to shield information from disclosure and the right to make and implement important personal decisions without governmental interference.”
The decision to overturn Roe v. Wade came in a case brought to the Supreme Court regarding a Mississippi law restricting abortions that had been adopted by the Republican-controlled state.
Reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision immediately began to be heard.
President Biden, in a televised address from the White House, pledged to protect the rights of women needing an abortion to travel to states where the services still will be available. He called on voters to use the power of the ballot to remove from office those who have given rise to the current conservative majority on the court. He specifically named defeated Former President Donald Trump as having appointed the three conservatives who made overturning Roe v. Wade possible.
“I call on everyone no matter how deeply they care about this decision to keep all protests peaceful, peaceful, peaceful, peaceful, no intimidation. Violence is never acceptable,” Biden said.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said, “Today, the Supreme Court took away the right of millions of Americans to make decisions about their own bodies. This decision is a grave injustice. I want everyone to know that abortion remains safe, accessible, and legal in New York. Just last month, in anticipation of this decision, I made an historic $35 million investment to support our state’s network of abortion providers. Last week, thanks to the partnership of Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins and Speaker Heastie, I signed a landmark, nation-leading package of legislation that further protects the rights of patients and empowers reproductive health care providers.
“New York has always been a beacon for those yearning to be free. Our state will always be a safe harbor for those seeking access to abortion care. To anyone who is working to deny abortion access, our message is clear: not here, not now, not ever.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James said, “Today”™s ruling is a vicious, dangerous, and deliberate attack on our most basic freedom as humans. Every single person in this country should have the right to make their own decisions about their own bodies. But make no mistake: We will not go back to the inhumane and restrictive pre-Roe era. Regardless of the situation at the national level, New York will always be a safe haven for anyone seeking an abortion. I will work tirelessly to ensure that low-income New Yorkers and people from hostile states have access to the care they need and deserve. I will always fight to protect our right to make decisions about our own bodies and expand access to this critical and lifesaving care.”
Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal said, “In overturning Roe, the Court strips women of the freedom to make their own healthcare decisions and puts that power in the hands of the government.
“A woman no longer has the right to decide when and whether to bear children. In fact, if Mitch McConnell is in charge, he”™ll be leading a national ban on abortion, shredding laws in Connecticut and other states protecting women”™s choice.
“Every American should have the right to decide whether and when to have children. Politicians do not know better than women what kind of care they need from their physicians. The government should never be allowed to dictate decisions about pregnancy that should remain between a woman and her doctor. The government should not be able to impose a forced pregnancy on anyone ”“ especially a pregnancy that is the result of abuse or rape or threatens their life.”
According to U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, “Today is a devastating day for all Americans. Today, more than half of the American population became second-class citizens, stripped of their constitutional right to privacy and bodily autonomy, regardless of where they live.
“People in as many as 28 states will no longer have the right to control when, under what circumstances and with whom they want to have children. The right-wing justices of the Supreme Court have declared that they are no longer permitted to make decisions about their own bodies, their own families, and their own lives.”
The major leader in the Connecticut State Senate, Bob Duff of Norwalk, said, “The Supreme Court’s overturning of settled law on reproductive health is the nightmare we feared. Decades ago Connecticut wrote Roe v. Wade’s abortion protections into state law and this year we took additional steps to protect not only our residents and medical professionals but also any American who has an abortion in our state. However, now that the Supreme Court has put an end to safe, legal abortions as a right in our country, Connecticut is dependent on having lawmakers and a Governor who will defend that right. We are no longer dealing with a theoretical threat to abortion access. Every local election will determine our access to that right.”
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said, “A group of unelected politicians masquerading as justices just eliminated a constitutional right that generations of women have known and relied on, the right to make decisions about their own bodies, to decide if and when to have children. This is a disaster for every person in every state, even in states like Connecticut that have proactively protected the right to an abortion. And it”™s only the beginning. Overturning Roe was the first step toward achieving the Republicans”™ ultimate goal: a nationwide abortion ban. Today is a devastating day, and those of us who believe government should stay out of women”™s health care must do everything in our power to fight back. Giving up is not an option.”
