Supreme Court of the United States annuls the right to abortion in the country

This Friday, June 24, the US Supreme Court annulled the “Roe v. Wade” ruling that guaranteed the right to abortion in the country as of 1973. It should be noted that from that moment on, a series of reactions were generated throughout the country for and against the decision

It should be noted that all this goes back to the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, where they tried to violate a Mississippi law that prohibits abortion from the 15th week of pregnancy, even if it is through of a rape.

On that occasion, the attorney general of the Mississippi stadium, Lynn Fitch, asked the Supreme Court to support the law and annul the Roe v. wade. That is why this Friday the court voted in favor of the Mississippi law by 6 votes of the conservative majority against 3, and repealed Roe vs. Wade by 5 votes to 4.

One of the judges, in this case, Samuel Alito wrote a text in which he states that:

"In this Friday's sentence it is concluded that the Constitution does not confer the right to abortion and that the power to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives."

Previously, in May, a document had been leaked that expressed this decision that the judges of the Supreme Court were going to make. On that occasion, President Joe Biden, on May 3, expressed in this regard that "if the justification for the decision was maintained as it was issued (in the draft), a whole range of rights would be in question."

The three liberal magistrates, Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, who voted against this ruling, also warned that this would happen and that another series of actions against other constitutional rights may also come.

“The right that Roe and Casey recognized is not alone. On the contrary, the Court has linked it for decades with other freedoms based on bodily integrity, family relations and procreation. The most obvious thing is that the right to terminate a pregnancy arose directly from the right to purchase and use contraceptive methods,” they assured.

For their part, from the group of conservatives there were three judges who were appointed at the time by Donald Trump and one of the most controversial, that is, Clarence Thomas was nominated by George HW Bush in 1991, who stated that “after annulling these manifestly erroneous decisions, the question remains whether there are other constitutional provisions”.

The magistrate described the decision of the Supreme Court as the action of "correcting the error" and also added that the judicial entity found that abortion is not a "freedom" framed in the due process clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution..

Therefore, Thomas urged reviewing other precedents based on the premise of US law to allow the courts to set limits on legislative activity when it affects "life, liberty or property."

Because of this, decisions like Grisworld vs. Connecticut (1965), dealing with the right to contraception; Lawrence vs. Texas (2003), focused on the legalization of consensual sexual relations between people of the same sex; and Obergefell vs. Hodges (2015), which guarantees the right to same-sex marriage.

Background and current reactions

In 1973, in the famous case Roe v. Wade, it was established that by a majority of 7 votes to 2, American women would be guaranteed the constitutional right to terminate their pregnancy.

The ruling establishes that during the first trimester of pregnancy, women can exercise their absolute right to have an abortion and, in addition, certain restrictions are allowed in the second trimester and some prohibitions in the third. But in the following years, some states passed sentences that reduced access to abortion.

Now, President Joe Biden was quick to express his disagreement and concern with the decision of the judicial body. In a speech he stated that the annulment of the right to abortion is:

“Materialization of an extreme ideology and a tragic error of the Supreme Court. Today is a sad day for the country, but it does not mean that the fight is over. Now the health and lives of women in this country are at risk, which is why the administration will defend the right of American women to cross state lines to have an abortion.”

In the same order of ideas, former President Barack Obama also expressed his disagreement with the decision of the magistrates by saying that:

"Today the Supreme Court has not only overturned nearly 50 years of precedent, it has subjugated to the whims of politicians and ideologues the most intensely personal decision anyone can make, attacking the essential freedoms of millions of Americans."

In the same way, the president of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi described the ruling as “heartbreaking, scandalous and cruel”.

However, former President Donald Trump told the Fox News network that said sentence "will work for everyone" and is with the aim of "recovering rights that should have been granted a long time ago."

Also, Mike Pence, former vice president in the Trump administration and candidate for Republican presidential candidate in 2024, stated categorically that " today he won his life."

For its part, as soon as the Court issued its decision, the first state to proclaim itself in favor of banning abortion was Missouri, as reported by its attorney general, Republican Eric Schmitt. The second was Texas, announced by its attorney general Ken Paxton, also from the same party.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott described the Supreme Court's decision as "correct" and also assured that "Texas is a state in favor of life and focused on saving all children from the devastation of abortion."

The other states that immediately joined the court's decision were: Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah and Wisconsin. Places that had previously passed laws prohibiting abortion that were in effect at the time the court ruled.

However, the Guttmacher Institute and the Planned Parenthood organization, which is the one with the largest network of reproductive health clinics in the United States, assure that 23 states will soon ban abortion.

For their part, the states of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Rhode Island and Washington (16 in total), are the only They have passed laws guaranteeing the right to abortion.