"The US Supreme Court Threatens Abortion Legalisation"

The US Supreme Court is set to re-debate landmark decisions that legalised the right to safe abortions across America. On May 2, American political newspaper POLITICO leaked a draft majority opinion status, written by Republican Justice Samuel Alito on February 10. In the draft, Alito argues “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled”.

If Roe vs Wade and Planned Parenthood vs Casey are overruled on a federal level, states will have the individual ability to entirely ban abortion in the first two trimesters – during the first seven months of pregnancy. This is the consequence of ‘trigger laws’, which are enforced state-by-state. American states currently have different levels of accessibility when it comes to abortion. Texas, for example, bans abortion after 6 weeks, requires parental permission for minors and involves a minimum of two clinic trips. Much of accessibility to abortion is dependent on financial status, which Roe sought to change.

In 1973, after a three-year battle against Dallas district attorney Henry Wade, Norma McCorvey (known as Jane Roe) drastically won and entirely legalised abortion until the end of the first trimester of pregnancy. Before this, only a few states had legalised abortion at any level. This law introduced the trimester-based system which was later scrapped in 1992’s Planned Parenthood vs Casey.

Casey’s ruling followed Roe’s momentous decision but sought to make the technicalities of abortion less “burdensome”. It introduced a “viability” analysis, which gave states the right to implement restrictions on abortions earlier in pregnancy, enacted in America today. However, Casey also created the ‘undue burden standard’ that aimed to protect women from being denied abortion of an unviable foetus.

The draft opinion was prompted by and discusses the State of Mississippi’s call for abortion to be prohibited under any circumstances after 15 weeks since a period. Mississippi Republican Attorney general, Lynn Fitch, called Roe and Casey ‘unconstitutional’, in a document written in July 2021. Following this, Alito discredits Roe’s legalisation as, he argues, “no such right to abortion is implicitly protected by constitutional provision”. In 1970, Roe began to snowball with a Texas court ruling that ban on abortion was illegal because it violated a constitutional right to privacy.

Alito also refers to Roe and Casey as cases that “deepened division” of America’ moral view on abortion. Pro-life protests in Mississippi acted as fire-starter for this potential ruling. Now, pro-choice believers are protesting back.

Immediately after the document was leaked, protests began outside the Supreme Court, holding signs that read “My Body My Choice”. The protests in Washington DC resulted in 8-feet fences being erected around the building. On May 7th, 500 people attended the Defend Roe! Emergency Rally in Springfield, Missouri, one of the 12 states in which trigger bans would come into place if Roe was overturned. The group “Ruth Sent Us”, named after late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, allegedly intends to protest outside the houses of six key Justices, including Samuel Alito. Protests have also taken place in London.

Midterm year United States Elections are set to take place on November 8, 2022. Currently, Republican campaigners deny seriously discussing abortion rights.