The U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe V. Wade of 1973 ruling on Friday, which recognized women’s constitutional rights to abortion. The decision condemned by the US President Joe Biden that will dramatically change the life of millions of American women’s and provoke tension in a deeply polarized country.
In a 6-3 decision backed by its conservative majority, the court maintained a Republican-sponsored Mississippi legislation that prohibits abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The decision to overturn Roe was 5-4, with conservative Chief Justice John Roberts writing separately to declare he would have supported the Mississippi legislation without going so far as to erase the Roe precedent entirely.
The ruling’s repercussions will be felt far beyond the high-security confines of the court, potentially reshaping the battlefield in November’s elections to determine whether Biden’s fellow Democrats retain control of Congress and signaling the justices’ new openness to change other long-recognized rights.
The decision will also exacerbate debate over the court’s legitimacy, which was once an unbreakable pillar of the American democratic system but is now under fire for its more aggressively conservative verdicts on a variety of subjects.
