BREAKING NEWS: Supreme Court overturns Roe and Casey in Mississippi abortion ruling

Demonstrators gather outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on June 24, 2022. | MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

The U.S. Supreme Court has overruled the landmark 1973 decision of Roe v. Wade, concluding that there is no constitutional right to an abortion. 

In a decision released Friday in the case of Thomas Dobbs, et. al. v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the high court ruled 6-3 to uphold Mississippi’s Gestational Age Act, which bans most abortions after 15 weeks into a pregnancy.

“Held: 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,” the syllabus to the majority opinion reads. 

Justice Samuel Alito authored the majority opinion and was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote a concurring opinion.

“We hold that Roe and [Planned Parenthood v. Casey] must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision,” wrote Alito. 

“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.”

The majority opinion stated that it is “time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”

Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan filed a dissenting opinion, claiming that Roe and Casey “struck a balance” between allowing abortion and allowing laws to regulate it. 

“Today, the Court discards that balance. It says that from the very moment of fertilization, a woman has no rights to speak of. A State can force her to bring a pregnancy to term, even at the steepest personal and familial costs,” the dissent reads.

“The Mississippi law at issue here bars abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy. Under the majority’s ruling, though, another State’s law could do so after ten weeks, or five or three or one—or, again, from the moment of fertilization. States have already passed such laws, in anticipation of today’s ruling. More will follow.”

In 2018, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signed House Bill 1510, the Gestational Age Act, which banned most abortions performed 15 weeks into a pregnancy. At the time, Bryant said the bill would help toward the goal of making “Mississippi the safest place in America for an unborn child.”

While the law provided exemptions for abortions performed due to life-threatening medical emergency for the mother or “severe fetal abnormality,” it did not include exemptions for rape or incest.

The law was viewed as a direct challenge to the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Roe, which prohibited states from passing laws restricting abortion before fetal viability.

Jackson Women’s Health, the only licensed abortion clinic in Mississippi, filed a lawsuit against the law right after it became law, with a federal court granting them a restraining order.

In December 2019, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the lower court ruling against the law, granting a permanent injunction against the legislation.

Circuit Judge Patrick Higginbotham authored the panel opinion, concluding that the law went against “a woman’s right to choose an abortion before viability.”

“States may regulate abortion procedures prior to viability so long as they do not impose an undue burden on the woman’s right, but they may not ban abortions,” he wrote.

“The law at issue is a ban. Thus, we affirm the district court’s invalidation of the law, as well as its discovery rulings and its award of permanent injunctive relief.”

In May 2021, the Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal, with Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, calling it a “landmark opportunity.”

“This is a landmark opportunity for the Supreme Court to recognize the right of states to protect unborn children from the horrors of painful late-term abortions,” said Dannenfelser in a statement to The Christian Post at the time.

“It is time for the Supreme Court to catch up to scientific reality and the resulting consensus of the American people as expressed in elections and policy.”

Last December, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the Dobbs case, with pro-life and pro-choice activists holding dueling rallies outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.

While the country awaited a decision by the high court, Politico released a leaked draft opinion in a report published May 2, which indicated that the justices were likely to overturn Roe.

The draft opinion was written in February and authored by Alito, suggesting the court would rule 5-4 in favor of overturning Roe and allowing states to decide whether to ban abortion.

Although Politico pointed out that the draft could change considerably by the time it was released, the news nevertheless sparked several pro-choice protests, as well as several incidents of vandalism of churches and pro-life offices.

Protests were also held at the homes of the justices who had signed on to the draft opinion, prompting law enforcers to increase security for the Supreme Court members.

Earlier this month, a man was arrested near the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. He had intended to kill the Supreme Court justice over the likely overturning of Roe.

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