US Supreme Court overturns Roe vs Wade abortion case

In a 6-3 decision today (Friday), the US Supreme Court overturned its nearly 50-year-old decision in Roe vs Wade that legalised abortion in the US.

The move has been widely welcomed by Irish pro-life activists.

The court’s 213-page ruling in Dobbs vs Jackson Women’s Health Organisation was not totally unexpected due to the leak of an opinion draft a month earlier. The ruling emphasises that there is no constitutional right to abortion in the United States.

The Dobbs case focused on an abortion clinic in Mississippi opposed to the state’s law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

The court’s reversal of its long-standing abortion ruling brings abortion policy decisions to the state level. At least half of states plan to ban or restrict abortions with this decision in place.

“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the court’s opinion. Casey vs Planned Parenthood is the 1992 decision that affirmed Roe.

“The constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely – the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment,” he added.

US Catholic bishops who have supported a reversal of Roe immediately reacted positively to the court’s decision that comes at the end of this year’s term.

“We give thanks to God for today’s decision…This just decision will save countless innocent children simply waiting to be born,” said a statement by the New York Catholic bishops shortly after the court’s opinion was released.

The move was welcomed by Irish pro-lifers. Commenting on the case, Eilís Mulroy of the Pro-Life Campaign said: “Today’s decision is a momentous development for the right to life. It means that for the first time in almost 50 years, it is possible once again to legally protect unborn babies in the United States.
“Since the Roe vs Wade decision in 1973, there have been over 60 million legal abortions performed in the US. Such a shockingly tragic figure cannot be explained away by simply repeating the ‘right to choose’ mantra. It calls for something much deeper and reflective. Something however that’s been noticeably absent from much of the media coverage since the leak about the Supreme Court decision emerged is an even-handed assessment of what prompted the court to overturn Roe vs Wade,” she said.

She insisted that: “Most media commentators are quick to indulge in ad hominem attacks on the pro-life movement instead of taking a fair and honest look at the compelling personal and cultural reasons that contributed to today’s decision”.

Independent NUI Senator Rónán Mullen also welcomed the decision.

“It’s morning again in America,” said Senator Mullen, drawing on an American political campaign slogan which became famous in the 1980s. “After the darkness of almost 50 years of federally mandated abortion, which has seen 60 million dead, it will now be possible for American states to enact laws to protect the lives of both unborn children and their mothers.”
Senator Mullen said he hoped the American decision would have reverberations in Ireland also. “Some of the later-term abortion possibilities legal in Ireland since 2019 mirror the sheer savagery of what some US States enacted as a result of the Roe v Wade decision of 50 years ago.”
“I hope that this decision will be a wake-up call to the Irish Government and others, to remind them that authentic human rights requires that all human lives are protected, not just those of the powerful or those who can speak up for themselves,” he said.

Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson Perez tweeted that the decision “affirms deep value inherent in human life.”

Protesters were outside the court when the ruling came down, as they have been for days, anticipating it. Those on both sides of issue were also at the court when the document first leaked.

The Dobbs opinion is similar to the leaked draft that called Roe “egregiously wrong from the start.”

Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan wrote a joint dissent that said: “Whatever the exact scope of the coming laws, one result of today’s decision is certain: the curtailment of women’s rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens.”

They also noted that their dissent “with sorrow – for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection.”