US Supreme Court ends constitutional right to abortion

The US Supreme Court has overturned the 1973 Roe v Wade decision, ending women’s 50 year old constitutional right to abortion and leaving the issue for individual states to decide.1

The decision on 24 June in the Mississippi case, Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, closely followed the draft written by associate justice Samuel Alito that was leaked in May.2

Alito was joined in the decision to overturn Roe v Wade and the related decision known as Casey by four associate justices: Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. The last three justices were appointed by former president Donald Trump, who promised to appoint justices who would overturn Roe v Wade.

Chief justice John Roberts voted only to uphold Mississippi’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks. The three liberal justices—Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor—disagreed with the majority on several grounds.

Thomas, in his opinion, called for the court in future to reconsider other rights that are based on the same reasoning as Roe v Wade: the right to use contraception, the right to same sex sexual relations, …