Roe v. Wade Overturned.

News | Taylor Riley | June 24th, 2022.

For almost fifty years, the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade case has protected abortion as a constitutional right under the right to privacy guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. The ruling of this case effectively legalized abortion on a federal level. However, on June 24, 2022, Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court.

In May, a leaked draft opinion written by Republican Justice Samuel Alito suggested that the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade. Today, the Supreme Court ruling was officially released, and in a 5-to-4 vote, it was decided that the 14th Amendment does not protect abortion.

“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,” Alito writes in the document.

Since abortion is no longer federally protected, laws pertaining to it can be decided by state governments, and almost half the states are planning to restrict or ban abortions following today’s decision.

“Overturning Roe and outlawing abortions will never make them go away,” Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “It only makes them more dangerous, especially for the poor and marginalized. People will die because of this decision. And we will never stop until abortion rights are restored in the United States of America.”

On the other hand, many Republican politicians view this overruling as a huge victory.

“The Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs case, reversing Roe v. Wade, is nothing short of a massive victory for life, and it will save the lives of millions of innocent babies,” Republican Senator Ted Cruz said in an issued statement. “The decision reverses one of the most egregious departures from the Constitution and legal precedent the United States has ever seen and one that has resulted in the deaths of 63 million American children.”

The decision to overturn the case will no doubt bring further division and discourse to our country, as CNN polls from May showed that 66% of Americans were not in support of Roe v. Wade being overturned.