For almost 50 years, following the ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States in Roe v. Wade, a woman’s right to abort an unborn child — right up until birth — has been taken for granted. Comprehensive sex education in state schools throughout the Western world includes this message. Assuming that teens will have sex, they are encouraged to use contraceptives but … if these fail, they can easily solve the problem by abortion.
How did it happen that after all this time the Supreme Court ruled that the constitution does not, after all, guarantee a right to abortion?
Mississippi’s “Gestational Age Act”
In 2018 the legislature of the state of Mississippi passed the “Gestational Age Act,” declaring illegal any abortion after the 15th week of pregnancy. The Jackson Women’s Health Organization abortion clinic contested this law on the grounds that the American constitution guarantees the right of women to abortion. The Federal District Court agreed with Jackson that the Act violated the court’s precedents forbidding states from banning abortion prior to fetal viability.
Mississippi’s appeal to the Supreme Court
Thomas Dobbs, State Health Officer of the Mississippi Department of Health, appealed to the Supreme Court asking that (1) Roe and Casey be struck down on the grounds that both cases had been wrongly decided and (2) the “Gestational Age Act” be upheld on the grounds that it “satisfies rational-basis review.”
Dobbs v. Jackson
The Supreme Court ruled that Roe and Casey had been faulty decisions. There is no right to abortion mentioned in the constitution. In Roe v. Wade the court had based its decision on the assumption that the right to privacy and liberty includes bodily autonomy. A woman therefore has the right to choose what to do with her body, and this would include the right to end the life of the child in her womb.
This assumption, the court ruled, was false. For a right to be protected by the constitution, where it is not expressly protected, it is necessary to show that the right was “deeply rooted in the nation’s history and tradition.” And this was not the case. At the time the constitution was written Americans did not have considered abortion a right.
To discuss with your teens:
For almost 50 years a woman’s constitutional right to end the life of her unborn child has been taken for granted, even though many have protested the effects of this assumed right: the deaths of 70 million unborn babies.
What changed? Why did the Supreme Court suddenly overturn Roe v. Wade?
To be continued
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In the News — US Supreme Court Abolishes Constitutional Right to Abortion
