Supreme Court turns back clock by ending abortion rights in US
25 June, 2022 | Riya Girdhar
A ruling by the US Supreme court was challenged after 50 years. This decision has left 36 million US women enraged.
On Friday, the US Supreme court passed a ruling which ended the right to abortion. The conservative-dominated jury reversed the historic decision of 1973 “Roe v Wade”, which established a woman’s right to an abortion, declaring that states have a choice, they can either authorize or restrict the procedure as per their pleasing.
The ruling read, “The Constitution does not grant a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled, and the authority to restrict abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives.”
This decision made by the court runs counter to a global trend of relaxing abortion regulations, particularly in countries like Ireland, Mexico, Argentina, and Colombia, where the Catholic Church retains a strong effect.
This verdict could only be achieved due to former Republican President Donald Trump’s appointment of three conservative justices to the court, namely: Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett.
Even after the overrule by the US Supreme Court on Roe vs. Wade, more than half of the states in the US may still allow abortions, however, the majority of the states in the midwest and south may not.
This decision regarding the abortion law has put many women at the risk of having abortions outside of institutional care.
Abortion may still be available to women in relatively liberal Democratic states, and to those who have the resources to travel to a clinic.
However, women from a weak economical section, particularly in many Republican states, may find it impossible to commute to other states for in-clinic abortions.
This leaves women in states with severe anti-abortion regulations with only a few options, these are: to prolong their pregnancy, get a hidden abortion or obtain abortion pills, or travel to another state where the operation is still permitted.
Since these abortion restrictions will especially affect poor women, the majority of whom will be Black or Hispanic.
This outrage has definitely affected US politics as well. Mid-term elections are to begin in the autumn, amidst which President Biden, who is “pro-choice”, has pledged to make abortion rights a major focus.