The Supreme Court has overturned Roe vs. Wade, and we’ll soon see battles on multiple fronts. Anti-abortion states might attempt to block patients from traveling to abortion clinics outside their state (considered a “pipe dream” to most legal analysts) or from receiving abortion pills via the mail (possible to attempt, difficult to achieve). This decision could also bring back long-dormant anti-abortion laws, such as Michigan’s 1931 abortion ban. Some anti-abortion states may decide to make exceptions for rape or impose criminal penalties on people who get abortions.
Many hoped the new, Republican-controlled Supreme Court would maintain earlier rulings protecting the right to an abortion. The Center for Reproductive Rights argued that abortion rights have been used by women for generations and that one in four women will terminate a pregnancy. The end of Roe will certainly impact millions of people in the U.S. and beyond.
Mississippi’s abortion law was also under review. In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court reviewed the Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The Supreme Court supported the state’s restrictions.
Americans have gotten use to a world where abortion on demand was the law of the land. However, many legal thinkers feel the basis of Roe vs. Wade was flimsy at best. The “right to privacy,” which is what the law is founded on, doesn’t exist in the Constitution. Abortion being allowed based on “Privacy” could be an argument for killing anyone, if done with discretion (it hasn’t happened, but it has a similar basis). With this new law, the battle has not ended but will not move to the states.
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