n a 6–3 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States has overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that affirmed the right to an abortion.
The decision, announced Friday, June 24, and penned by Justice Samuel Alito, holds: “The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives.”
Along with Alito, Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch and Chief Justice John Roberts made up the majority ruling.
Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan wrote the dissenting opinion, saying that “Roe and Casey well understood the difficulty and divisiveness of the abortion issue,” but that the Supreme Court had “struck a balance” with its decisions in the past.
“[The Court] held that the State could prohibit abortions after fetal viability, so long as the ban contained exceptions to safeguard a woman’s life or health,” wrote Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan.
“It held that even before viability, the State could regulate the abortion procedure in multiple and meaningful ways.”
In response to the assertion that abortion will still be legal in some states, the dissenting justice wrote: “That is cold comfort, of course, for the poor woman who cannot get the money to fly to a distant state for a procedure. Above all others, women lacking financial resources will suffer from today’s decision.”
The dissenting opinion also points out that overturning Roe and Casey may allow states to legislate whether people seeking abortions can cross state lines to do so, or if they will be able to have medications mailed to them from out of state.
This ruling comes shortly after a leaked draft of the decision was circulated, causing mass demonstrations across the country.
