NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- The U.S. Supreme Court sided with Mississippi in a momentous abortion ruling Friday that overturns Roe v. Wade and curbs abortion rights nationwide.
The 6-3 ruling ends nearly 50 years of constitutional protections for abortion. Bans are expected in roughly half of U.S. states now that abortion law is being handed back to the states.
Alito, in the final opinion issued Friday, wrote that Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that reaffirmed the right to abortion, were wrong the day they were decided and must be overturned.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision,” Alito wrote.
Authority to regulate abortion rests with the political branches, not the courts, Alito wrote.
Joining Alito were Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — the diminished liberal wing of the court — were in dissent.
“With sorrow—for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection—we dissent,” they wrote.
Chief Justice John Roberts would have stopped short of ending the abortion right, noting that he would have upheld the Mississippi law at the heart of the case, a ban on abortion after 15 weeks, and said no more.
The ruling puts the court at odds with a majority of Americans who favored preserving Roe, according to opinion polls.
The nation had been bracing for the final version of a leaked draft opinion in May that suggested the high court was prepared to overturn the landmark 1973 ruling that established abortion rights nationwide.
The case the court ruled on, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, was a dispute over a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after the 15th week.
A leaked draft of a court opinion by Alito showed a conservative majority of justices were ready to use the case to topple the court’s Roe v. Wade decision.
The legal fight started when Mississippi’s only abortion clinic sued over the 15-week ban. A federal district judge blocked the law from taking effect. The state then appealed to the Supreme Court.
Now that the court has sided with Mississippi, abortion law will be in the hands of states, some of which have all but banned the practice. Missouri's attorney general said he was acting immediately to enforce a state law banning abortion except in “cases of medical emergency.”
Thirteen states, mainly in the South and Midwest, already have laws on the books that ban abortion in the event Roe is overturned. Another half-dozen states have near-total bans or prohibitions after 6 weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.
In roughly a half-dozen other states, the fight will be over dormant abortion bans that were enacted before Roe was decided in 1973 or new proposals to sharply limit when abortions can be performed, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.
The ruling is expected to disproportionately affect minority women who already face limited access to health care, according to statistics analyzed by The Associated Press.
Last week, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed laws that expand legal protections for people seeking and providing abortions. They also provide funding for personal security and security around abortion facilities.
Hochul said a statement after the ruling that the court “took away the right of millions of Americans to make decisions about their own bodies.”
“This decision is a grave injustice,” the governor said. “I want everyone to know that abortion remains safe, accessible, and legal in New York.”
The Biden administration and other defenders of abortion rights have warned that a decision overturning Roe also would threaten other high court decisions in favor of gay rights and even potentially, contraception.
The liberal justices made the same point in their joint dissent: The majority “eliminates a 50-year-old constitutional right that safeguards women’s freedom and equal station. It breaches a core rule-of-law principle, designed to promote constancy in the law. In doing all of that, it places in jeopardy other rights, from contraception to same-sex intimacy and marriage. And finally, it undermines the Court’s legitimacy.”
But Alito contended that his analysis addresses abortion only. “Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion,” he wrote.
Reactions to the decision were swift, including outside the court, where some demonstrators were crying and others cheering. In heavily Democratic New York City and surrounding areas, many elected leaders denounced the ruling and vowed abortion would remain accessible locally.
Mayor Eric Adams released a statement noting that the court had struck down New York state’s concealed carry law for handguns just a day before overturning Roe.
“Two days in a row, politics came before people at the highest court in the land, and, as a result, the health of our nation now hangs in jeopardy,” Adams said. “What the court has done today ignores the opinions of the majority of Americans, as it helps states control women’s bodies, their choices, and their freedoms.”
“There is nothing to call this Supreme Court opinion but an affront to basic human rights and one that aims to shackle women and others in reproductive bondage,” Adams said.
The mayor said New Yorkers “can still access safe, legal abortions here in New York City” and that “those seeking abortions around the country ... are welcome here.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James said the ruling “destroyed 50 years of progress” and “put the health and lives of millions across the U.S. into question.”
“To those defending abortion rights and those scared of the future: I will always use the power of my office to fight for you,” James said.
Gov. Phil Murphy called the ruling “backwards and appalling.”
“While New Jersey planned for this eventuality by codifying a woman’s right to an abortion under state law, it is incumbent that we do more to fully secure reproductive rights and ensure access to reproductive health care without delay,” Murphy said. “Until we do, my Administration will take the necessary steps to fully protect both New Jersey’s women and those who come to our state to access the freedom which may no longer exist in their home state.”
Gov. Ned Lamont said the decision “drastically oversteps the constitutional right for Americans to make their own reproductive healthcare decisions without government interference.”
Lamont said he’s “grateful to live in Connecticut, where our laws make it clear that women have a right to choose,” and the governor said he’ll “do everything in my power to block laws from being passed that restrict those rights.”
In an address to the nation, President Joe Biden said “it’s a sad day for the court and the country.” “Now with Roe gone, let’s be very clear, the health and life of women across this nation are now at risk,” he said from the White House.
He added that "the court has done what it’s never done before — expressly taking away a constitution right that is so fundamental to so many Americans,” he said.
The White House has been preparing for this moment since the leak of the draft decision. Officials have been huddling with state leaders, advocates, health care professionals and others to prepare for a future without Roe v. Wade.
Former President Donald Trump, who appointed three of the conservative justices on the court, told Fox News after the ruling: "This is following the Constitution, and giving rights back when they should have been given long ago."
"I think, in the end, this is something that will work out for everybody," Trump said. "This brings everything back to the states where it has always belonged."
"God made the decision," Trump said when asked whether he feels he played a role in the reversal of Roe.
Former President Barack Obama urged people opposed to the ruling to get involved with activism for reproductive rights, saying the court “not only reversed nearly 50 years of precedent, it relegated the most intensely personal decision someone can make to the whims of politicians and ideologues—attacking the essential freedoms of millions of Americans.”
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the ruling “is outrageous and heart-wrenching” and fulfills the Republican Party's "dark and extreme goal of ripping away women’s right to make their own reproductive health decisions.”
Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters that he applauds the court decision: “A lot of lives are going to be saved ... But it also goes back to people in the states to have a say in the process.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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