The US Supreme Court on Friday ended the right to abortion in a seismic ruling that shreds half a century of constitutional protections on one of the most divisive and bitterly fought issues in American political life.
The court overturned the landmark 1973 “Roe v Wade” decision that enshrined a woman’s right to an abortion and said individual states can permit or restrict the procedure themselves.
Widely seen as one of the most consequential decisions by the Supreme Court, one that many women say infringes on their rights over their own bodies, the ruling will result in an almost immediate ban on abortions, with some exceptions, in most conservative, Republican-governed states.
The conservative justices led by Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas maintained that “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 inflamed debate and deepened division.”