Supreme court abortion laws

Anti-abortion activists rally in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on June 6. Drew Angerer/Getty Images In a historic and far-reaching decision, the U.S. Supreme Court officially reversed Roe v. Wade on Friday, declaring that the constitutional right to abortion, Writing for the court majority, Justice Samuel Alito said that the 1973 Roe ruling and repeated subsequent high court decisions reaffirming Roe "must be overruled" because they were "egregiously wrong," the arguments "exceptionally weak" and so "damaging" that they amounted to "an abuse of judicial authority." The decision, most of which was leaked in early May, means that abortion rights will be rolled back in nearly half of the states immediately, with more restrictions likely to follow. For all practical purposes, abortion will not be available in large swaths of the country. The decision may well mean too that the court itself, as well as the abortion question, will become a focal point in the upcoming fall elections and in the fall and thereafter. Joining the Alito opinion were Justice Clarence Thomas, appointed by the first President Bush, and the three Trump appointees — Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Chief Justice John Roberts, appointed by President George W. Bush, concurred in the judgment only, and would have limited the decision to upholding the Mississippi law at issue in the case, which banned abortions after 15 weeks. Calling the decision "a serious jolt to the legal sys...

When the Supreme Court The answer is straightforward, at least according to Justice Brett Kavanaugh — who provided the decisive fifth vote to uphold precedent in the voting case, but who voted to overturn nearly 50years of precedent on abortion last year. Since Kavanaugh is now this court’s closest thing to a swing justice, it behooves us to listen carefully to what he has to say on the subject.

The supreme court justices in April last year. Back row, left to right: Brett Kavanaugh, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett. Front row: Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor. Photograph: Reuters The supreme court justices in April last year. Back row, left to right: Brett Kavanaugh, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett. Front row: Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor. Photograph: Reuters W ith Roe v Wade on the brink of defeat, following the leak of a supreme court opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito and signed by four other conservative judges, the court’s views – and track record – on abortion are under extreme scrutiny. Here’s what the nine justices have actually said over the years about it. Chief Justice John Roberts Roberts voted for abortion restrictions in two major cases: in 2007, to uphold a ban on what opponents call “partial-birth abortion”, and in dissent in 2016, when the court struck down Texas restrictions on abortion clinics. But when a virtually identical law from Louisiana came before the court in 2020, Roberts voted against it – and wrote the opinion striking it down, insisting the 2016 case “was wrongly decided” but that the question nevertheless was “whether to adhere to it” in deciding the 2020 case. Roberts’ views on when to break with court precedent could determine how far he is willing to go in the Mississippi case. At his 2005 confirmation ...

In June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, opening the door for states to ban abortion outright. In the year since the decision, 13 states have made abortion illegal. “After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State”examines laws, constitutions, and court decisions on abortion—and assigns each state, territory, and the District of Columbia to one of five categories: Expanded Access, Protected, Not Protected, Hostile, and Illegal. Click through this tool to learn about all the bans and restrictions currently on the books in each state. This tool is updated in real time. After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State With the overturn of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2022, abortion policies and reproductive rights are in the hands of each state. Use this map to explore the breakdown of abortion laws by state in real-time–and understand abortion bans, types of abortion restrictions, what trigger bans are, and more. Glossary Understanding Abortion Bans Pre- Roe bans Most states repealed abortion bans in effect as of 1973 once Roe made them unenforceable. However, some states and territories never repealed their pre-Roe abortion bans. Now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe, these states could try and revive these bans. Trigger bans Abortion bans passed since Roe was decided that are intended to ban abortion entirely if the Supreme Court limited or overturned Roe or if a federal Constitutional amendment prohibited abortion. Pre-viability gestational bans ...

The Supreme Court has voted to strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, according to an The draft opinion is a full-throated, unflinching repudiation of the 1973 decision which guaranteed federal constitutional protections of abortion rights and a subsequent 1992 decision — Planned Parenthood v. Casey — that largely maintained the right. “ Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Alito writes. Deliberations on controversial cases have in the past been fluid. Justices can and sometimes do change their votes as draft opinions circulate and major decisions can be subject to multiple drafts and vote-trading, sometimes until just days before a decision is unveiled. The court’s holding will not be final until it is published, likely in the next two months. The immediate impact of the ruling as drafted in February would be to end a half-century guarantee of federal constitutional protection of abortion rights and allow each state to decide whether to restrict or ban abortion. It’s unclear if there have been subsequent changes to the draft. No draft decision in the modern history of the court has been disclosed publicly while a case was still pending. The unprecedented revelation is bound to intensify the debate over what was already the most controversial case on the docket this term. The draft opinion offers an extraordinary window into the justices’ deliberations in one of the most consequential cases before the court in the last five decades. Some court-watchers predic...