BREAKING: US Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade Abortion-Rights Ruling

Picture Courtesy: Bloomberg


The US Supreme Court had overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and wiped out the constitutional right to abortion. The court voted along ideological lines, 6-3 to uphold Mississippi’s ban after 15 weeks of pregnancy, and 5-4 to go further and explicitly overturn Roe and the constitutional right it established. Justice Samuel Alito wrote the court’s majority opinion.

This ruling comes more than a month after the leaked draft by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the court was prepared to take this momentous step. It puts the court at odds with a majority of Americans who favored preserving Roe, according to opinion polls.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote, “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision.”

Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, the liberal justices, wrote, “With sorrow—for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection—we dissent.”

The Biden administration and other defenders of abortion rights have warned that a decision overturning Roe also would threaten other high court decisions in favor of gay rights and even potentially, contraception.

The majority also overturned Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that reaffirmed Roe and laid out what has been the controlling law ever since.