Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade

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The Supreme Court has effectively overruled the landmark reproductive rights Roe v. Wade decision from 1973 with a 5-4 decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, oral arguments of which they heard on Dec. 1, 2021.

The ruling reads: “The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives.” It continues, “Abortion presents a profound moral question. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohib- iting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. The Court overrules those decisions and returns that authority to the people and their elected representatives.”

The right to an abortion has been a federal statute in this country for nearly fifty years, and this decision will allow each state to decide for itself whether or not to outlaw the procedure. There are already nearly a dozen Republican-controlled state legislatures that have either enacted abortion restriction legislation which will ostensibly go into immediate effect following this ruling.

This decision confirms a draft decision that was written by Justices Samuel Alito and leaked to Politico on May 2nd. Read the full ruling here.

This story is developing and will be updated as more information is forthcoming.