WASHINGTON, D.C. — As expected, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision guaranteeing the right to abortion.
By a 6-3 vote, the court found that the Constitution does not contain a right to abortion and compared Roe to Plessy v. Ferguson, the 1896 decision that allowed segregation under the concept of “separate but equal.”
“[T]he Court considers whether a right to obtain an abortion is part of a broader entrenched right that is supported by other precedents,” the opinion reads. “The Court concludes the right to obtain an abortion cannot be justified as a component of such a right. Attempts to justify abortion through appeals to a broader right to autonomy and to define one’s ‘concept of existence’ prove too much. Those criteria, at a high level of generality, could license fundamental rights to illicit drug use, prostitution, and the like. What sharply distinguishes the abortion right from the rights recognized in the cases on which Roe and Casey rely is something that both those decisions acknowledged: Abortion is different because it destroys what Roe termed ‘potential life’ and what the law challenged in this case calls an ‘unborn human being.’ None of the other decisions cited by Roe and Casey involved the critical moral question posed by abortion. Accordingly, those cases do not support the right to obtain an abortion, and the Court’s conclusion that the Constitution does not confer such a right does not undermine them in any way.”
U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, who many see as the architect behind the transformation of the court to a conservative majority, lauded the decision.
“The Court has corrected a terrible legal and moral error, like when Brown v. Board overruled Plessy v. Ferguson,” McConnell said. “The Justices applied the Constitution. They carefully weighed the complex factors regarding precedent. The Court overturned mistaken rulings that even liberals have long admitted were incoherent, restoring the separation of powers. I commend the Court for its impartiality in the face of attempted intimidation.”
U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers also applauded the decision and said today’s ruling effectively bans abortion in Kentucky.
“This monumental decision restores regulatory power to each state,” Rogers said. “It immediately blocks all access to abortion in states, like Kentucky, where trigger laws were enacted to put the Supreme Court’s ruling into effect simultaneously.”
The decision marks the climax of a nearly half-century fight by social conservatives to overturn the decision. Now the battle will turn to state legislatures, which now have the court’s blessing to regulate or outlaw abortion, as they see fit.
Minutes after the court’s decision was announced, Kentucky’s Republican Caucus released a statement from Rep. Nancy Tate, of Brandenburg, praised the outcome.
“Today marks a historic moment in the fight to protect our most vulnerable,” Tate said. “With this ruling in the Dobbs case, the Supreme Court of the United States validates decades of assertions that there is no place in a document that seeks to secure ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for a procedure that serves no purpose other than to end the life of an innocent human being.”
Tate also used the occasion to seek support for the “No Right to Abortion Amendment” on the Kentucky ballot this fall.
“This Kentucky General Assembly is the most pro-life in our Commonwealth’s history and we will continue to advocate for those who have no voice,” Tate said. “I urge Kentuckians to vote ‘YES!’ for proposed constitutional amendment #2 on this November’s ballot. Doing so will amend the Kentucky Constitution to state unequivocally that nothing in our state constitution creates a right to abortion or requires government funding for it.”
Meanwhile, Gov. Andy Beshear warned of dire consequences in light of today’s ruling.
“Today’s decision triggers an extremist Kentucky law that creates a total ban in Kentucky that will eliminate all options for victims of rape or incest,” Beshear said in a statement released on Twitter. “As the former chief prosecutor of Kentucky, I know that these violent crimes happen, and not having options for victims of rape and incest is wrong.”
Likewise, a statement released from Kentucky’s Democratic caucus chairs says the Dobbs decision could lead to the erosion of other rights.
“Mark our words: Today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision on abortion will be seen in the future as our era’s Plessy v. Ferguson,” said the statement signed by Rep. Joni Jenkins and Sen. Morgan McGarvey. “This abhorrent ruling erases nearly 50 years of the court’s own precedents while sending women’s reproductive rights — and risking others like same-sex marriage and rights to contraception — back to the 1700s; it goes against the views of a durable majority of Americans; and, most critically, it needlessly and cruelly threatens the lives of millions of women while telling them they no longer have authority over their own bodies. This is beyond wrong, and we stand with those who will fight with all we have to overturn this travesty as soon as possible.”
The full text of the Dobbs decision can be found below: