On Friday, the long-awaited announcement has come down from the Supreme Court—Roe v. Wade has indeed been overturned.
The high court announced that it has effectively ended the recognition of a constitutional right to abortion and will give individual states the power to allow, limit or ban the practice altogether after it was implemented a half century ago.
The ruling came in the court’s opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which centered on a Mississippi law that banned abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The Republican-led state of Mississippi asked the Supreme Court to strike down a lower-court ruling that stopped the 15-week abortion ban from taking place.
“We end this opinion where we began. Abortion presents a profound moral question. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the court’s opinion.
Leaders in the faith community are rejoicing over the Supreme Court’s decision, including those heavily involved in the pro-life movement, like Alveda King, founder of Speak for Life and Chairperson of the Center for the American Dream.
“For 49 years, ‘we the people’ have had to endure a flawed and unconstitutional ruling from the Supreme Court that allowed unelected judges to create a national right to abortion that ultimately led to extreme actions like late-term abortions against the unborn,” King told Charisma News Friday.
“Today, the Supreme Court has rightfully overturned the decision, sending the power to regulate abortion ack to the elected officials at the state level. I have longed for and prayed for this day. And, I will continue to fight for human dignity for everyone—from the womb to the tomb.”
The decision, unthinkable just a few years ago, was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court that has been fortified by three appointees of former President Donald Trump.
The ruling came more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the court was prepared to take this momentous step.
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.
Joining Alito were Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. The latter three justices are Trump appointees. Thomas first voted to overrule Roe 30 years ago.
Chief Justice John Roberts would have stopped short of ending the abortion right, noting that he would have upheld the Mississippi law at the heart of the case, a ban on abortion after 15 weeks, and said no more.
Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — the diminished liberal wing of the court — were in dissent.
The leakage of the draft opinion has triggered violent reaction from the pro-abortion community. According to a CBN News story Friday, more than 40 incidents of violence, vandalism and intimidation against pro-life pregnancy centers have been reported since the draft opinion was leaked in early May.
“Our building was vandalized and our communication system was torn off our door only after some vulgar things happened on camera,” said Annabelle Rutledge, the national director of Young Women for America.
As Charisma News reported Thursday, Jackson Right to Life in Jackson, Michigan, suffered a great deal of vandalism to its offices earlier this week. A domestic terrorist group called Jane’s Revenge proudly and defiantly took credit for the attack.
Earlier this month, Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s life was threatened when a man carrying a gun, a knife and zip ties was arrested Wednesday near Kavanaugh’s house in Maryland. The man had already announced his intention to kill Kavanaugh.
Other rousing protests have been held outside the home of other Supreme Court justices.
Former President Donald Trump praised the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade Friday, telling Fox News that the ruling “will work out for everybody” and that “God made this decision.”
“This is following the Constitution, and giving rights back when they should have been given long ago,” said Trump, who appointed three conservative justices–Neil Gorsch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett—to the high court. “This brings everything back to the states where it has always belonged.”
When asked whether he feels he played a role in the reversal of Roe v. Wade, after having appointed three conservative justices to the high court, the former president told Fox News: “God made the decision.”
Andrew Bath, Thomas More Society Executive Vice President and General Counsel, shared how his not-for-profit public interest law firm provided key input to the Supreme Court as it was considering Dobbs.
“Our efforts appear to have paid off,” Bath said. “We filed an important Amicus brief with the Supreme Court in the Dobbs case and arranged for two other briefs to be filed, all so we could make several key points to guide the court to the correct result in this pivotal case. First and most importantly, we clearly laid out the ways the court got the law wrong when deciding Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. There simply was no right to abortion hiding in the constitution until the Roe court found it in 1973.
“Next, we argued that the court got the science of fetal development wrong,” Bath detailed, adding that since then, “There have been advances in medicine and in our understanding of fetal development that have made Roe even more out of touch with science now than it was when it was decided almost 50 years ago.”
While pro-lifers cheered the Supreme Court’s decision, those in the pro-abortion camp responded with acrimony, incorrectly calling abortion “a constitutional right.”
Planned Parenthood tweeted: “The Supreme Court just overturned Roe v. Wade, ending our constitutional right to abortion. We know you may be feeling a lot of things right now — hurt, anger, confusion. Whatever you feel is OK. We’re here with you — and we’ll never stop fighting for you.”
Former First Lady Michelle Obama tweeted that she was “heartbroken” over the decision:
“When we don’t understand history, we are doomed to repeat its mistakes. In this country, are futures are tied together in a delicate tapestry that we each had a hand in making. Too often, cynicism or indifference makes us feel like we don’t have a say in weaving it., but that couldn’t be further from the truth … This horrifying decison will have devastating consequences.”
Senator Chuck Schumer tweeted: “Today is one of the darkest days our country has ever seen American women are having their rights taken by 5 unelected Justices on the extremist MAGA court These justices—appointed by Republicans and presiding without accountability—have stolen the fundamental right to abortion.”
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi tweeted in an expected dark tone:
“Today, the Republican-controlled Supreme Court has achieved the GOP’s dark and extreme goal of ripping away women’s right to make their own reproductive health decisions.” {eoa}
Shawn A. Akers is the online editor for Charisma News.
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