by Emotional scenes unfolded outside the US Supreme Court on Friday as women, abortion advocates and pro-choice protesters were confronted with the reality of a future without Roe vs. Wade.
speaking tothe independent In front of the heavily guarded court, a woman broke down in tears as she recounted how the judges’ decision to overturn abortion rights showed how far the United States has been “regressing.”
“I’m just here to protect all of our human rights,” she said, breaking down in tears. “This is supposed to be an advanced country, but we are actually going backwards at this point because people are going to die.
“And we have to deal with that … abortion is a human right, it’s health care and without it people are going to die.”
She attacked lawmakers who did not “stand up” for the people who elected them to represent Americans, but admitted she was “not surprised” by what had happened, as the nation has been in “a downward swing for the last six years”.
“The people we vote for are not defending us,” he said. “And the laws of this country are going to have serious impacts on all of our citizens.”
He added: “Even if it doesn’t make a difference… we have to do what we can.”
A mother and her daughter had come to the protest together and described how they could not believe that the fight for reproductive rights would still continue in 2022.
“I never would have thought that when my daughter was this age, this is something we would have to fight for,” the mother said. “It is not possible for women to have social, financial and physical equality when they cannot control when and how they have children.”
his daughter told him the independent she struggles to stand for long due to a disability, but was determined to appear in court because she was “mad”.
She said she felt less discouraged after joining the protest and seeing all the people who wanted to fight for abortion rights.
another woman said the independent that the justices had “lied” to the American people about not overturning the court, criticizing the decision to return abortion decisions to the states.
However, he said he felt “optimistic” for future generations, saying he believes they are more engaged in politics and will push for change.
A small number of anti-abortion protesters also flocked to the Supreme Court, including right-wing agitators Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman, who shouted through megaphones for women to “get back in the kitchen.”
After attempting to rile up the crowd, they were soon peacefully escorted from the scene.
On Friday morning, the United States Supreme Court struck down the historic Roe vs. Wade ruling, ending the fundamental right of access to abortion for millions of women across the United States.
In the case of Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health OrganizationThe nation’s highest court ruled 6-3 in favor of a Mississippi law that bans abortion at 15 weeks of pregnancy.
All six conservative justices voted to uphold the state’s abortion restriction, and in the process, five (excluding Chief Justice John Roberts) voted to strike down the 1973 law. Roe judgment that guaranteed the constitutional right to abortion and that of 1992 Planned Parenthood vs. Casey ruling that had further consolidated that right.
In its landmark decision, the nine-person court has effectively set back the reproductive rights of the American people by 50 years and put power over women’s bodies in the hands of the states.
While the leak of a draft opinion last month revealed the court’s plan to overturn Roethe decision was somewhat unexpected as Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh swore during their confirmation hearings that they believed the ruling was established legal precedent.
Abortion became instantly illegal in several Republican-led states, including South Dakota, Louisiana and Kentucky, after they implemented “trigger laws” to ban the procedure as soon as possible. Roe was annulled.
The three liberal justices wrote in their dissent that the ruling marked the end of women being “free and equal citizens” in the United States.
“Sadly, for this Court, but more so, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection, we dissent,” says the opinion of Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.
“Whatever the exact scope of the upcoming laws, one result of today’s decision is certain: the reduction of women’s rights and their status as free and equal citizens,” they wrote.
In a majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that Roe Y Casey they were “grossly wrong” and “should be overturned”.
“Roe was terribly wrong from the start,” he wrote.
“His reasoning was exceptionally weak and the decision has had damaging consequences.
“And far from achieving a national agreement on the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have inflamed the debate and deepened the divide.”
President Joe Biden addressed the nation from the White House, calling it a “sad day” for the nation and vowing to do “everything in my power” to protect abortion access across the country.
“The health and lives of women in this nation are now at risk,” she said. “It is a sad day for the court and for the country.”
She urged voters to “make their voices heard” by electing officials in the midterms who will “codify a woman’s right to choose into federal law once again.”
The final ruling comes more than a month after a draft majority opinion was leaked on May 2 revealing the court’s intentions to end five decades of abortion rights.
Following the leak, several Democratic-led states moved to strengthen abortion protections, while Republican states implemented “trigger laws” to ban or severely limit access to abortion as soon as the ruling was made.
About half of all US states are expected to ban or severely restrict abortion now that Roe has been raised.
Fears are growing that abortion is just the beginning of several rights that are now under attack with the constitutional right that Roe relied on, the 14th Amendment right to privacy, which is also used to set precedents in other cases. , including the right to contraception and same-sex sexual relations. marriage.
In his opinion, concurring with the majority ruling, Justice Clarence Thomas said that the Supreme Court should also “reconsider all substantive due process precedents of this Court, including Griswold, Lawrence, Y Obergefell.
“We have a duty to ‘correct the wrong’ set forth in those precedents,” he wrote, referring to rulings that Americans have a right to contraception, same-sex sex and same-sex marriage.
