- News -
The United States Supreme Court has officially overturned the monumental Roe v. Wade Decision, turning the issue of abortion back to the states.
The majority 6-3 decision was leaked earlier this year, prompting severe political backlash and significant riots at justice's homes and outside Supreme Court buildings, but nonetheless, the decision held strong.
In the majority opinion, the court said that the 1773 Roe decision was egregiously wrong in recognizing the "constitutional right" of a woman to abort an unborn child and that the decision led to decades--almost 50 years--of slaughter.
What This Means:
Let's start with what it does not mean: This does NOT mean that abortion is illegal across the United States. On the contrary, many of America's most liberal states, about half of the country, will still be free to allow abortion all the way up until birth. Instead, this decision simply means that the previously perceived federally recognized right of a woman to have an abortion on demand is no longer a federally protected right.
What this decision does do is give individual states the freedom to seriously restrict or even totally ban abortion in that particular state through the passage of legislation. In other words, if that state's occupancy elects state representatives willing to pass legislation banning abortion, only then can it be banned.
Many conservative states, on the contrary, already have laws passed that were simply waiting to come into effect until after Roe was overturned. These laws would completely ban abortion in that state, while still more states have laws in the books that would make abortion largely criminal, and would effectively ban most abortions.
So essentially, what the supreme court decision did was turn the decision of whether or not an unborn child had the right to life back over to the states and its elected officials. By definition, the overturning of Roe enhanced democracy in the U.S.
One thing is for sure, almost half of the union, at least 23 states, will soon be implementing serious restrictions on abortion.
But while this news means severe abortion bans in many states and possible bans in others, it also means, as was already stated, that America's most liberal states, namely California, Washington, New York, and Colorado, will continue to have almost NO restriction on abortion. There are about 10 states that have little to no restriction on any, much less late-term abortion.
How Did This Happen?
Well, we certainly have the 6 conservative justices, less John Roberts, to thank for this brave decision. It is primarily the conservative majority sitting on the Supreme Court that led to this historic decision.
We also have former President Donald Trump and former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel to thank for passing three solid justices through confirmation at record speed. It is more than safe to say that whichever side, conservative or liberal, controlled the Supreme Court would have decided this decision once and for all. And it is safe to say that without a conservative majority in the Senate and the White House confirming conservative justices, the overturning of Roe would not have taken place.
Contributor(s)
Al K. Scott
I wish Norma McCorvey had lived to see this day.