Roe v. Wade: Overturned?

A Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade, a case that affirmed a woman’s constitutional right to terminate her pregnancy (which was reaffirmed in 1992 by Planned Parenthood v. Casey) was leaked on Monday, May 2. The draft, written by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., claims that the decision was “not based on any view about when a state should regard prenatal life as having rights or legally cognizable interests.” He instead said that the Roe v. Wade case set a “highly restrictive regime on the entire nation,” that “the Constitution makes no reference to abortion,” and said that elected representatives have the power to decide abortion regulations. 

Roe v. Wade was filed in 1970 by Jane Roe – name used in court to protect the identity of plaintiff – against Dallas Country, Texas’s district attorney Henry Wade. When it occurred, 30 states prohibited all abortion at any stage. The case challenged Texas’ law that made abortion illegal unless it was a doctor’s note to save the woman’s life. The suit claimed that state laws were unconstitutional, vague, and disrupted the right to personal privacy which is protected by the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments. It was argued, among other things, that this went against the government’s need to protect human life. However, the Supreme Court ruled that any state law prohibiting abortion without respect to the stage of the pregnancy and other interests of the pregnancy infringed upon the Fourteenth Amendment due process clause rights. On top of that, only the woman herself, and her physician, could make the decision on abortion within the first trimester, and the state could not regulate it within that time period. In the second trimester though, a state could regulate abortions. In the final trimester, once the fetus reached the point of viability, a state could regulate or prohibit abortions entirely as long as the law has exceptions for medically necessary abortions. The final decision ended the political processes that a third of the states were going through to liberalize their laws and took down abortion laws in every state.

But what will the repeal of Roe v. Wade mean for the future of the U.S.? 

A 2017 study found that one in four U.S. women are likely to have an abortion, and women of color are at an even higher percentage. If the draft ends up as the final ruling, and the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, there will be twenty-three states that have “effective-immediately” laws and constitutional amendments to ban abortions. Some states have bans from before the 1937 decision that were never removed. If it is overturned, trigger bans and pre-existing laws will go into effect automatically. Some states already have six and eight-week bans as well as amended constitutions to prohibit abortion rights protection. It was also found that around 58% of the women who are of age to get pregnant live in states against abortions. Only sixteen states currently have protections on abortion rights, as well as the District of Columbia. Most are prior to viability of the fetus; however, some are throughout pregnancy. Should the original ruling be overturned, these states will see a large increase in patients needing abortions. Already, after the Texas six-week ban, clinics around Texas saw an 800% increase in patient visits than the year before. However, many of the people needing this care will be unable to travel to receive it. This could significantly affect long-term health in women as a study from the University of California, San Francisco found that a large number of women are harmed by denied abortions. On top of that, women who’ve had to give birth in hard times are likely to raise their child alone as well as have higher risks for serious health problems. Some of the states that aren’t banning abortions are taking steps to protect reproductive rights and provide services to women who live in restricting states. 

By Samantha Weiner