The Supreme Court has struck down Roe v. Wade, eliminating the nearly 50-year-old constitutional right to abortion and ruled that states may regulate the practice of it, according to a media report.
“The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives” the ruling said, Sputnik reported.
The decision was announced on Friday by a majority of conservative justices.
The ruling upholds Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, which directly clashed with Roe’s requirement that states permit abortion up to the point of fetal viability, around 24 weeks.
More than two dozen states, primarily in the South and Midwest, are expected to tighten abortion access as a result of Roe falling, including 13 states with “trigger bans” set to take effect automatically or through minimal effort by state officials, The Hill reported.
The Roe v. Wade case, decided by the Supreme Court in 1973, ruled in favour pregnant women’s ability to seek an abortion without undue government restrictions. The 1992 decision in the case Planned Parenthood v. Casey largely upheld the previous ruling.
Justice Samuel Alito, who authored the Supreme Court’s written opinion, said the US Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of states from regulating or prohibiting abortion and the Roe and Casey decisions abrogated that authority.
(With ANI Inputs)