Darkest day for women’s rights as US ends abortion rights

Washington, DC, June 25: Ending women's constitutional right to abortion, the United States Supreme Court has delivered a 'horrific verdict' and overturned the 50-year-old landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade verdict, allowing states to ban abortions. The judgement paves the way for individual states to ban the procedure.

 

"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 court said.

 

The ruling comes months after a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito revealed the top court was poised to overturn the 1973 case ruling to limit abortion access in the United States. US experts had said that the Supreme Court, with a 6-3 conservative majority including three justices - Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett- appointed by former Republican President Donald Trump, will act to end or cut back abortion rights.

 

 

 

In the majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito said Roe v. Wade was "egregiously wrong." Alito’s ruling which mirrored his draft opinion stated "abortion presents a profound moral issue on which Americans hold sharply conflicting views," he said. "The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion."

 

 

 

The impact promises to be transformational. Twenty-six states either will or are likely to ban almost all abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organisation that backs abortion rights.

 

Reacting to this, US President Joe Biden said the Supreme Court has made a "tragic error" in overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade. In an address, Biden said the abortion ruling "took away" Americans’ constitutional right and called the decision the result of "extreme ideology".

 

 

Meanwhile, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said the ruling is "a huge blow to women’s human rights and gender equality. "Access to safe, legal, and effective abortion is firmly rooted in international human rights law and is at the core of women and girls’ autonomy and ability to make their own choices about their bodies and lives," Bachelet said in a statement.

.

.