Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that established the constitutional right to abortion in the United States, was overturned the morning of Friday, June 24, 2022, in a 6-3 decision. The outcome is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half of the states across the U.S.
This overturn gives individual states the power to set their own abortion laws. After a leak of the court’s overturn opinion in May by Justice Samuel Alito, almost half the states claimed to ban or restrict abortion should Roe v. Wade was overturned. Alito, in the final opinion issued Friday, wrote that Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that reaffirmed the right to abortion, were wrong the day they were decided and must be overturned.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision,” Alito wrote.
Joining Alito were Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan were in dissent.
Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson told ABC in May of this year that he opposes a national abortion ban because it goes against the principle of self-determination for states, as reported by Forbes.