Supreme Court

Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade, Allowing States to Ban Abortion

"With sorrow — for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection — we dissent," Sotomayor wrote in a searing dissent for the three liberal justices

NBCUniversal Media, LLC The Supreme Court issued a 6-3 decision Friday overturning Roe v. Wade, wiping the constitutional right to an abortion.

The Supreme Court on Friday ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years in a decision by its conservative majority to overturn Roe v. Wade. Friday's outcome is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

The decision, unthinkable just a few years ago, was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court that has been fortified by three appointees of former President Donald Trump.

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Both sides predicted the fight over abortion would continue, in state capitals and in Washington, and Justice Clarence Thomas, part of Friday's majority, called on the court to overturn other high court rulings protecting same-sex marriage, gay sex and the use of contraceptives.

Clinics in at least two states, Wisconsin and West Virginia, stopped performing abortions after Friday's decision.

Abortion foes cheered the ruling, but abortion-rights supporters, including President Joe Biden, expressed dismay and pledged to fight to restore the rights.

“It's a sad day for the court and for the country,” Biden said at the White House. He urged voters to make it a defining issue in the November elections, declaring, “This decision must not be the final word.”

The ruling came more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion 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.

Alito, in the final opinion issued Friday, wrote that Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that reaffirmed the right to abortion, were wrong the day they were decided and must be overturned.

“We therefore hold that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives,” Alito wrote, in an opinion that was very similar to the leaked draft.

Authority to regulate abortion rests with the political branches, not the courts, Alito wrote.

Joining Alito were Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. The latter three justices are Trump appointees. Thomas first voted to overrule Roe 30 years ago.

Four justices would have left Roe and Casey in place.

The vote was 6-3 to uphold the Mississippi law, but Chief Justice John Roberts didn't join his conservative colleagues in overturning Roe. He wrote that there was no need to overturn the broad precedents to rule in Mississippi's favor.

Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — the diminished liberal wing of the court — were in dissent.

“With sorrow—for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection—we dissent,” they wrote, warning that abortion opponents now could pursue a nationwide ban “from the moment of conception and without exceptions for rape or incest.”

The ruling is expected to disproportionately affect minority women who already face limited access to health care, according to statistics analyzed by The Associated Press.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department “will work tirelessly to protect and advance reproductive freedom.” He said in a statement that in addition to protecting providers and those seeking abortions in states where it is legal “we stand ready to work with other arms of the federal government that seek to use their lawful authorities to protect and preserve access to reproductive care.”

In particular, Garland said that the federal Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of Mifepristone for medication abortions.

"States may not ban Mifepristone based on disagreement with the FDA’s expert judgment about its safety and efficacy,” Garland said.

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Anti-abortion protesters celebrate the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022.
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Pro-abortion rights protesters react as the Dobbs v Jackson Womens Health Organization decision overturning Roe v Wade is handed down at the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday, June 24, 2022.
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Anti-abortion demonstrators outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., US, on Friday, June 24, 2022. A deeply divided Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and wiped out the constitutional right to abortion, issuing a historic ruling likely to render the procedure largely illegal in half the country.
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An aerial view of people gathered at Washington Square Park to protest against the Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health case on June 24, 2022 in the Manhattan borough of New York City, United States.
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Anti-abortion demonstrators outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., US, on Friday, June 24, 2022.
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Pro-abortion demonstrators gather outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on June 24, 2022.
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Abortion-rights activists gather for a protest following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade at Union Square, Friday, June 24, 2022, in New York.
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(From left to right) Grace Miller (11), Luke Miller (13), Leo Miller (5) and Faith Miller (15) hold signs at an anti-abortion rally at Federal Plaza Friday, June 24, 2022, in Chicago, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade.
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People protest for abortion-rights at the Utah State Capitol Friday, June 24, 2022, in Salt Lake City.
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Abortion rights demonstrator reacts outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., US, on Friday, June 24, 2022.
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A demonstrator holds a sign outside the Arkansas state Capitol in Little Rock, Ark. on Friday, June 24, 2022 protesting the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
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Anti-abortion supporters hug outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on June 24, 2022. The US Supreme Court on Friday ended the right to abortion in a seismic ruling that shreds half a century of constitutional protections on one of the most divisive and bitterly fought issues in American political life.
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Pro-abortion supporters react outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on June 24, 2022.
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Polama Amayo-Ryan stands as a lone demonstrator at the steps to the state capitol in Austin, Texas, Friday, June 24, 2022.
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Anti-abortion rights and abortion rights demonstrators hold signs outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., US, on Friday, June 24, 2022.
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An abortion-rights protester sheds tears following Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the federally protected right to abortion, in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022.
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Members of Florida Planned Parenthood PAC Abortion rights activists protest in Miami, Florida, on June 24, 2022.
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Executive director of Illinois Right To Life Amy Gehrke speaks during an anti-abortion rally at Federal Plaza Friday, June 24, 2022, in Chicago.
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Anti-abortion campaigners celebrate outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on June 24, 2022.
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Demonstrators protest about abortion outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022.
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Abortion-rights protesters cheer at a rally following the United States Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, federally protected right to abortion, outside the state capitol in Lansing, Mich., Friday, June 24, 2022.
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Abortion rights demonstrators during a protest in New York, US, on Friday, June 24, 2022.
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People march together to protest the Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health case on June 24, 2022 in Miami, Florida.
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Abortion rights demonstrators march through the streets to protest the Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health case on June 24, 2022 in Detroit, Michigan.
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A crowd protesting the overturning of Roe V. Wade by the Supreme Court holds a rally outside the City-County Building in downtown Pittsburgh, Friday, June 24, 2022.
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Demonstrators gather at the federal courthouse following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Friday, June 24, 2022, in Austin, Texas.
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An abortion-rights activist wears tape reading “second class citizen” on their mouth as they protest outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022.
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A celebration outside the Supreme Court, Friday, June 24, 2022, in Washington.
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Rise4AbortionLA members protest the overturn of Roe v. Wade outside of the Federal Courthouse in Los Angeles Friday, June 24, 2022.
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Abortion rights activists gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022.
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People celebrate outside the Supreme Court, Friday, June 24, 2022, in Washington.
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Raquel Juarez protests for abortion-rights at the Utah State Capitol Friday, June 24, 2022, in Salt Lake City.
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Anti-abortion activists Maggie Donica, 21, right, and Grace Rykaczewski, 21, left, pray following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, federally protected right to abortion, in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022.

More than 90% of abortions take place in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, and more than half are now done with pills, not surgery, according to data compiled by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

Mississippi’s only abortion clinic, which is at the center of the case, continued to see patients Friday. Outside, men used a bullhorn to tell people inside the clinic that they would burn in hell. Clinic escorts wearing colorful vests used large stereo speakers to blast Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” at the protesters.

Mississippi is one of 13 states, mainly in the South and Midwest, that already have laws on the books that ban abortion in the event Roe is overturned. Another half-dozen states have near-total bans or prohibitions after 6 weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.

In roughly a half-dozen other states, the fight will be over dormant abortion bans that were enacted before Roe was decided in 1973 or new proposals to sharply limit when abortions can be performed, according to Guttmacher.

In Wisconsin, which has an 1849 abortion ban on the books, Planned Parenthood immediately halted all scheduled abortions at its clinics in Madison and Milwaukee following the high court's ruling.

The decision came against a backdrop of public opinion surveys that find a majority of Americans oppose overturning Roe and handing the question of whether to permit abortion entirely to the states. Polls conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and others also have consistently shown about 1 in 10 Americans want abortion to be illegal in all cases. A majority are in favor of abortion being legal in all or most circumstances, but polls indicate many also support restrictions especially later in pregnancy.

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 liberal justices made the same point in their joint dissent: The majority “eliminates a 50-year-old constitutional right that safeguards women’s freedom and equal station. It breaches a core rule-of-law principle, designed to promote constancy in the law. In doing all of that, it places in jeopardy other rights, from contraception to same-sex intimacy and marriage. And finally, it undermines the Court’s legitimacy.”

And Thomas, the member of the court most open to jettisoning prior decisions, wrote a separate opinion in which he explicitly called on his colleagues to put the Supreme Court's same-sex marriage, gay sex and even contraception cases on the table.

But Alito contended that his analysis addresses abortion only. “Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion,” he wrote.

Whatever the intentions of the person who leaked Alito’s draft opinion, the conservatives held firm in overturning Roe and Casey.

In his opinion, Alito dismissed the arguments in favor of retaining the two decisions, including that multiple generations of American women have partly relied on the right to abortion to gain economic and political power.

With sorrow — for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection — we dissent

Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan

Changing the makeup of the court has been central to the anti-abortion side’s strategy, as the dissenters archly noted. “The Court reverses course today for one reason and one reason only: because the composition of this Court has changed,” the liberal justices wrote.

Mississippi and its allies made increasingly aggressive arguments as the case developed, and two high-court defenders of abortion rights retired or died. The state initially argued that its law could be upheld without overruling the court’s abortion precedents.

Then-Gov. Phil Bryant signed the 15-week measure into law in March 2018, when Justices Anthony Kennedy and Ruth Bader Ginsburg were still members of a five-justice majority that was mainly protective of abortion rights.

By early summer, Kennedy had retired and was replaced by Justice Brett Kavanaugh a few months later. The Mississippi law was blocked in lower federal courts.

But the state always was headed to the nation’s highest court. It did not even ask for a hearing before a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ultimately held the law invalid in December 2019.

President Joe Biden discussed the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade in a speech on Friday.

By early September 2020, the Supreme Court was ready to consider the state’s appeal.

The court scheduled the case for consideration at the justices’ private conference on Sept. 29. But in the intervening weeks, Ginsburg died and Barrett was quickly nominated and confirmed without a single Democratic vote.

The stage now was set, although it took the court another half year to agree to hear the case.

By the time Mississippi filed its main written argument with the court in the summer, the thrust of its argument had changed and it was now calling for the wholesale overruling of Roe and Casey.

The first sign that the court might be receptive to wiping away the constitutional right to abortion came in late summer, when the justices divided 5-4 in allowing Texas to enforce a ban on the procedure at roughly six weeks, before some women even know they are pregnant. That dispute turned on the unique structure of the law, including its enforcement by private citizens rather than by state officials, and how it can be challenged in court.

Roberts was among the dissenters.

Then in December, after hearing additional arguments over whether to block the Texas law known as S.B. 8, the court again declined to do so, also by a 5-4 vote. “The clear purpose and actual effect of S. B. 8 has been to nullify this Court’s rulings,” Roberts wrote, in a partial dissent.

In their Senate hearings, Trump’s three high-court picks carefully skirted questions about how they would vote in any cases, including about abortion.

But even as Democrats and abortion rights supporters predicted Kavanaugh and Gorsuch would vote to upend abortion rights if confirmed, the two left at least one Republican senator with a different impression. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine predicted Gorsuch and Kavanaugh wouldn’t support overturning the abortion cases, based on private conversations she had with them when they were nominees to the Supreme Court.


Associated Press writers Jessica Gresko, Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston, Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi and Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.

Copyright The Associated Press
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