Biden’s anger at
As US Supreme Court overturns Roe versus Wade, he warns of ‘cruel’ impact on rape victims
THE US Supreme Court last night overturned the landmark Roe v Wade law which has guaranteed the right to an abortion for American women since 1973.
The ruling said it was ‘egregious from the start’ and should be repealed because there is no mention of terminations in the Constitution.
The Supreme Court said individual states should now have the power to set their own laws without fear of falling foul of Roe v Wade, which had permitted abortions up to 23 weeks of pregnancy. The decision was pushed through with a 6-3 vote by the court’s conservative majority, with three of the Rightleaning judges appointed by Donald Trump during his term in office. It is expected that around half of America’s 50 states will now ban or limit abortion, forcing women to travel to other states for a termination.
And one of the judges, the conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, indicated that other laws allowing contraception, gay marriage and even gay sex are now in the sights of the Supreme Court. President Joe Biden yesterday called the decision ‘cruel’, adding that rape victims or those who had endured incest would be forced to give birth.
The judgment came after decades of campaigning by the prolife movement. Minutes after the ruling the Missouri Attorney General signed a law that effectively bans terminations.
Some 13 states had ‘trigger bans’ in place that will outlaw abortion within 30 days, with at least nine more planning to drastically restrict it.
In scenes that seemed to sum up the divided state of the US, hundreds who had gathered outside the court exploded in fury at the news, while pro-life protesters wept tears of joy.
Roe v Wade arises from a case brought by Norma McCorvey, a 22-year-old who was denied an abortion by Henry Wade, the Dallas County district attorney at the time. The law had faced previous challenges, most notably in 1992. But within two years of the last Trump appointee joining the court, Roe v Wade has been overturned. The case that triggered its demise, known as Dobbs v Jackson Women’s
‘A sad day for the country’
Health Organization, is related to a Mississippi law that banned nearly all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy and was introduced as a calculated challenge to Roe v Wade.
Yesterday’s majority opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, said Roe v Wade had ‘enflamed debate and deepened division’. He added: ‘The inescapable conclusion is that a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the nation’s history and tradition’. In their dissenting opinion, the three liberal judges said it was a ‘curtailment of women’s rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens’.
The opinion stated: ‘A State can... transform what, when freely undertaken, is a wonder into what, when forced, may be a nightmare.’ Polls show that 85 per cent of Americans think abortion rights should be legal in some or all circumstances.
According to an analysis by economist Caitlin Knowles Myers, the bans could result in an additional 60,000 births a year. Mr Biden said: ‘It’s a sad day for the court and for the country… with Roe gone the health and life of women in this nation is now at risk.’ He called the decision the ‘realisation of an extreme ideology’. Boris Johnson said it was a ‘big step backwards’. But Mr Trump’s Vice President Mike Pence declared: ‘Today, life won.’