The controversial decision has stripped approximately half of US women of their right to choose.
The Supreme Court has today announced its decision to overturn Roe v Wade.
The landmark 1973 law gave women the right to abortion care, and the decision to overturn the ruling is predicted to have stripped over 50% of US women of their right to choose.
The case that has overturned Roe v Wade is centred around Mississippi's abortion laws, with the state petitioning to ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy - a direct challenge to Roe v Wade. It was passed by the Supreme Court today, with five conservative justices - a majority on the nine justice court, ruling in its favour. As a result it struck down the landmark law.
"We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled," read the majority opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito. "The constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision."
Now that Roe v Wade has been overturned, it will be up to each state to determine the legality of abortion. It is now expected that twenty-six states will ban or restrict abortion.
"The Supreme Court just overturned Roe v. Wade, ending our constitutional right to abortion," Planned Parenthood announced in a statement. "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."
While shocking, the verdict is unsurprising with a draft majority "opinion" document written by Justice Samuel Alito leaked last month, suggesting that the majority of US Supreme Court justices were in support of overturning the law.
We will continued to update this story.
