Follow the latest news on the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling here and read more about today’s developments in the posts below.
On Friday, from Washington Square Park up to Union Square, past Madison Square Park and the outdoor diners in the Flatiron — some whooping encouragement; some gazing in bafflement — New Yorkers marched.
The air was filled with chants of “Illegitimate Court” and “Pro-Life? It’s a lie, people die!” Cyclists dressed in black blocked off the cross streets, frustrating some drivers.
Watching from the sidewalk, cheering on the protesters, were 17-year-old Eden Kaplan and 16-year-old Sophie Kirk. The two high school students had found out about the Supreme Court’s decision this morning, through a barrage of posts on friends’ Instagram stories.
“I would want to say I was surprised, but I don’t really feel like I was,” Kaplan said. “My (20-year-old) sister also came in the room screaming and crying about what was happening.”
Already, the future looks more limited. A rising senior, Kaplan has yet to settle on a college, and is pondering which state to spend the next years of her life. After today, the range of options has been severely curtailed, she said.
“That’s really upsetting to think about that.”
As they spoke, Kaplan and Kirk passed a hand-drawn sign back and forth: “My body is not a political battleground.”
They saw it — for real, for the first time, on Instagram and on Twitter, in emails and from links and texts from family.
They knew it was coming, but for many of the women protesting in New York City on Friday afternoon and evening, some sitting and watching, others marching, prepared with scrawled-over t-shirts — “Bans off my body” — and an array of furious, witty and acerbic signs, the simple fact of it was almost too much to bear: Roe v. Wade had been overturned. Abortion, safe and legal, is now or will imminently be banned for millions across the country.
Kaluta was in Washington Square Park as the city’s protest hub filled up a little before 6:30 p.m. No one was quite sure where the march was heading — they just wanted to be there, to be together. Even if it changed nothing. Hoping it would change something, if only a little, for someone who could not be there.
Mia Khatcherian, 32, felt a pang of guilt at her first reaction to the court’s decision: She was happy to live in New York state, where abortion is expected to remain a protected right under state law. “It felt selfish,” she said.
The daughter of a Filipina mother and Armenian father, Khatcherian knew that people would be watching. “Knowing that women of color are going to bear the brunt of this decision” made sitting home, raging on social media, an impossibility, she said — so she joined those on the street.
Protests outside the Supreme Court on Friday have been peaceful so far, according to CNN correspondents on the scene. People are speaking out against the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The opinion is the most consequential Supreme Court decision in decades and will transform the landscape of women’s reproductive health in America.
Going forward, abortion rights will be determined by states, unless Congress acts. Already, nearly half of the states have or will pass laws that ban abortion while others have enacted strict measures regulating the procedure.
Hundreds of people on both sides of the issue are outside the building in Washington, DC, to make their voices heard. CNN Correspondent Donie O’Sullivan said some are activists who have been working on this issue while others are tourists from states who are already implementing abortion restrictions.
Many of the protesters are expressing concern not just about abortion, but also about what comes next — including possible changes to other issues like same-sex marriage that also hinge on the right to privacy, O’Sullivan reported.
CNN Law Enforcement Correspondent Whitney Wild said demonstrations at the Supreme Court have been peaceful. There has not been a reason for Capitol Police or any other agencies to intervene with the crowd, Wild said, and there have not been any arrests. She said law enforcement is still concerned about domestic violent extremists who may see the large crowds as an opportunity for violence.
Groups like Planned Parenthood, Bans Off Our Bodies, and Women’s March are among the activist groups organizing the events across the country, including in Atlanta, San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles, New York, and Houston.
After news broke that the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, activist groups began organizing protests for Friday.
CNN has found that at least 70 protests have been planned.
Groups like Planned Parenthood, Bans Off Our Bodies, and Women’s March are among the activist groups organizing the events.
Atlanta, San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles, New York and Houston are among the cities where protests will occur or are already underway.
An abortion rights advocate climbed to the top of the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge in Washington, DC, Friday to protest the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The bridge is currently shut down, according to the District’s Department of Transportation, who said in a statement the closure is due to “safety concerns involved with protest activity and will remain in effect until further notice.”
Guido Reichstadter posted videos and photos of himself on social media from the top of the bridge where he unfurled a large green banner. Green is recognized as a symbol of abortion rights. Reichstadter also planted a flag on the bridge that reads: “Don’t tread on my uterus.”
Reichstadter told CNN on the phone that he intends to stay on top of the bridge for as long as he physically can. Reichstadter is without water after his bottle fell out of his bag when he arrived to the top, he said.
He told CNN that while many people in the US oppose the Supreme Court’s decision, their support is largely passive, which he says is not enough to ensure that women have access to abortions across the country.
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Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine urged Ohioans on Friday to have a “civil debate” in a message that was both televised and posted on the governor’s Twitter account, in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade.
DeWine said he would be working with the General Assembly and local communities to improve the quality of pre- and post-natal care, mental care for mothers and children, among other measures.
“I believe that all Ohioans want this state to be the most pro-family, pro-child state in the country, and we are making great progress in creating an environment here in Ohio where families and children can thrive and live up to their full potential,” DeWine said.
Some context: Republican Ohio Attorney General David Yost filed an “emergency” motion in federal court on Friday to dissolve the injunction against the state’s Heartbeat Law, he said in a post on his Twitter account. The bill would have banned abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy.
Paxton Smith, the Texas teen who went viral after changing her valedictorian speech to speak out against the state’s abortion law last year, told CNN the energy at the Supreme Court Friday “was high and it was angry,” following the Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Smith has been in Washington, DC, since last Friday in anticipation of the decision, she told CNN.
“A lot of people are just really, really angry and kind of coping with this feeling of disbelief that in America, the so-called ‘land of the free’ and ‘land of the equal,’ a human right has been taken away from so many people,” she said.
“I’m feeling fairly disappointed, and I guess, I mean, the main feeling is fear,” she described.
Smith, who is now 19 years old and just finished her first year at the University of Texas at Austin, has been advocating for abortion access since her viral speech last year. She is on the board of an abortion fund and abortion advocacy organization and just attended a human rights conference in Switzerland, she said.
“Don’t let that fear kind of just sit on the side. Use it and use it as motivation for your work,” Smith said.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed a new law strengthening abortion rights in the state, following the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
As he signed the bill, Newsom described feeling “pissed, resolved and angry.”
California’s new law, passed by the state legislature on Thursday, will create a protective shield against any potential civil action originating outside the state for anyone performing, assisting, or receiving an abortion in the state. AB 1666 will protect not just California residents but anyone visiting the state seeking reproductive health care.
The new law is just one of more than a dozen bills making their way through the legislature, aiming to strengthen and protect abortion access. Other proposed bills would seek to focus on root causes of reproductive health inequities, enhance privacy protections, and allow qualified nurse practitioners to provide first-trimester abortions.
Anger over the court’s opinion was not limited to Newsom.
Bonta and Newsom were joined by other lawmakers determined to strengthen the state’s laws and ensure women in other states with more restrictive laws know they can come to California to seek health care.
“California is a safe haven for those who seek abortion care. Abortion remains fully legal in California. Today’s decision does not impact our state’s laws. You have the right to an abortion here,” Bonta said. “In California, we refuse to turn back the clock and let radical ideologies exert control over your body.”
California has also introduced an amendment adding reproductive health care as a fundamental right to the state’s constitution, which will go before voters in November.
The amendment reads: “The state shall not deny or interfere with an individual’s reproductive freedom in their most intimate decisions, which includes their fundamental right to choose to have an abortion and their fundamental right to choose or refuse contraceptives. This section is intended to further the constitutional right to privacy guaranteed by Section 1, and the constitutional right to not be denied equal protection guaranteed by Section 7. Nothing herein narrows or limits the right to privacy or equal protection.”
“This is not just about choice, it is not just about reproductive freedom,” Newsom insisted, mentioning marriage equality, interracial marriage, and transgender rights. “They’re coming after you next,” he warned.
Performing abortions in Kentucky is now considered a felony after the state’s Human Life Protection Act, which prohibits the willful “termination of the life of an unborn human being,” went into effect Friday, Attorney General Daniel Cameron said.
“Today is a day that many have hoped for — the issue of abortion has been returned to the people and to the states, where it belongs,” Cameron said in a statement. “This moment deserves to be celebrated, but it also calls for renewed commitment. Renewed commitment to life-affirming care for the unborn, for mothers, and for Kentucky families.”
The ACLU of Kentucky said it is prepared to file a lawsuit in state court arguing against SCOTUS’s opinion citing that “the Kentucky Constitution allows for the legal right to access abortion.”
They issued a statement Friday saying that their clients have stopped providing care while their legal team assesses the court’s opinion in how it relates to laws in Kentucky.
“We will aggressively litigate this claim on behalf of our Louisville-based client, EMW Women’s Surgical Center, seeking relief from the courts that will allow all providers to resume providing abortions as soon as possible,” the statement said.
With the Supreme Court deciding there is no longer a federal constitutional right to an abortion, the baby formula shortage and effects of the pandemic on careers and home life, women are carrying the weight of the world.
At the same time, online hatred is running rampant and some fear the impact an Elon Musk-run Twitter and his push for free, less-moderated speech could have on women, especially women of color. Life can be mentally exhausting, especially in 2022.
What struggles are you facing and what do you want the world to know? Women are always juggling, but this moment seems uniquely hard with new challenges piling up. How are you handling 2022? What do you hope for? Share your thoughts with us and we may follow up for a CNN story.
Many Americans don’t remember what it was like before 1973, when the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade — but California Rep. Barbara Lee does.
She said she remembers the fear of getting an abortion at that time: Terrified she might die, and terrified because she knew the abortion she was getting in Mexico was illegal.
“Coming back across the border, I didn’t know if I was going to get stopped. I didn’t know, getting into California, if I was going to get stopped and arrested — Back in the days now where abortions and abortion providers are going to be criminalized. That is horrific,” Lee said.
“We cannot let this happen,” she added. “We cannot go back.”
She said one of her main concerns is that the restriction on abortion rights will disproportionately impact people of color and people living in rural and low-income areas. These people don’t have the money or resources to be able to travel for services like she did or pay for child care, she said.
“The ballot box — we have got to elect state and local officials who trust women and who know that a personal decision about their own reproductive decisions is personal, it’s private, just like it was with me,” Lee said.
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Dr. Janet Cathey, physician provider at the Little Rock Planned Parenthood office, told CNN that they had to cancel between “60 and 100” appointments for people who had abortion procedures scheduled or were in the process of scheduling.
The total includes about “30 patients today, another 20 tomorrow and then there were patients next week,” Cathey said.
Cathey told CNN that in Arkansas, patients seeking abortion procedures must wait 72 hours before being able to receive medications for termination, which is why those appointments that were canceled for “some who were doing first-day consultation, and some were following up to get their medications.”
Cathey said all patients were given contact information to the Planned Parenthood office in Overland Park, Kansas, office to get help with their abortion procedures there. She said that the Little Rock office “made arrangements for some to be transferred there.”
Little Rock is roughly seven hours from Overland Park, but for those patients in southern Arkansas, the travel time is closer to 10 hours, Cathey said.
Speaking about the impact on Arkansas by today’s SCOTUS ruling, Cathey said it’s not just local residents who will be impacted.
“We were seeing people from Louisiana and Texas who came to see us too. Some called from Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. They’re going to be impacted as well,” she added.
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge earlier on Friday signed a certification that prohibits abortions in the state.
Media giants have become the latest corporate titans to reaffirm financial support for abortion-seekers following Friday’s Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
The entertainment goliath Disney assured employees Friday they would be able to afford a similar level of health care outside of their home area if they needed to travel to access health services, including family planning and pregnancy-related services, a Disney spokesperson told CNN.
Meanwhile, the cable and media giant Comcast said Friday that travel for abortion services is covered under a company-wide employee benefit. Under the policy, Comcast may pay each employee up to $4,000 per trip if the employee needs to travel to access a covered health care service. The coverage is capped at three trips and $10,000 per year, whichever comes first, but the benefit resets each year, meaning that employees who require follow-up health visits out-of-state could benefit substantially from the policy over multiple years, Comcast told CNN. The benefit applies to all Comcast and NBCUniversal employees, the company said, and the amount paid typically depends on the type of expense incurred.
And Warner Bros. Discovery — which owns CNN — said in a statement that it “immediately” expanded its benefits program on Friday following the court’s ruling to cover abortion-related travel expenses.
“Warner Bros. Discovery is committed to offering our employees across the country access to consistent and comprehensive healthcare services,” a company spokesperson told CNN. “In light of the Supreme Court’s recent decision, we immediately expanded our healthcare benefits options to cover transportation expenses for employees and their covered family members who need to travel to access abortion and reproductive care.”
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she is trying to stop a nearly-century-old law that restricts abortions from going into effect, now that the US Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade.
If the proposed law does go into effect, it would make Michigan one of the most restrictive states on abortion access.
The 1931 law that’s still included in Michigan’s penal code states: “Any person who shall wilfully (sic) administer to any pregnant woman any medicine, drug, substance or thing whatever, or shall employ any instrument or other means whatever, with intent thereby to procure the miscarriage of any such woman” … is guilty of a felony.
It has an exception to “preserve the life” of the woman, but it does not exclude for rape or incest. The law also threatens abortion providers with prison time, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan.
In response, Whitmer filed a lawsuit to try to block it from going into effect, before Roe was overturned. Now, she said she is hoping the court takes action soon.
“I filed this lawsuit a couple of months ago. People thought that it was too early, or maybe it wasn’t going to be necessary, obviously, it was both timely and absolutely necessary,” Whitmer told CNN on Friday.
The lawsuit argues that under the Michigan constitution, “women have due process and equal protection right to privacy and bodily autonomy and I’m hoping that our judges move swiftly to recognize that right here,” she said.
Whitmer said restricting abortion rights in Michigan would not just hurt those who live in the state, but would also restrict care for women who come from neighboring states like Indiana and Ohio — both states whose legislatures are poised to ban abortion.
CNN’s Veronica Stracqualursi contributed to this report.
Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor has certified banning abortion in the state, according to Gov. Kevin Stitt, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday.
“John O’Connor wasted no time. His swift action to certify section 861 banned abortion in our state immediately,” Stitt said. “It is my hope that the rest of America will follow Oklahoma’s lead.”
O’Connor said during a Friday news conference with the governor that “the people of Oklahoma have decided through their elected leaders, and the governor signed legislation making abortion illegal in the state of Oklahoma from the moment of conception, except in the instance of saving the life of the mother.”
“And remember that in the Oklahoma law, there is no punishment for the mother. There is no criminal punishment. There is no civil exposure for the mother. It is for the people who aid or abet or solicit abortion,” he added.
“Oklahoma’s law is very clear now. And so, law enforcement is now activated with respect to any efforts to aid, abet or solicit abortions,” he added.
Some background: Stitt signed a bill last month that would make performing abortions illegal in the state, only allowing exceptions to save the life of the pregnant person. The measure makes performing an abortion or attempting to perform one a felony punishable by a maximum fine of $100,000 or a maximum of 10 years in state prison, or both.
A second bill signed into law last week set a timeline for provisions to go into effect, and it was dependent on how the Supreme Court ruled.
A coalition of 83 prosecutors collectively representing 87 million people from 28 states and territories have publicly vowed not to prosecute those seeking and performing abortions in the wake of the Supreme Court’s opinion clearing the way for bans and legal action.
The joint statement asserts that criminalizing abortion will not end the practice, but will inhibit safe procedures and inhibit those needing medical, social, and law enforcement help from seeking it.
“We are horrified that some states have failed to carve out exceptions for victims of sexual violence and incest in their abortion restrictions; this is unconscionable,” the statement said. “And, even where such exceptions do exist, abortion bans still threaten the autonomy, dignity, and safety of survivors, forcing them to choose between reporting their abuse or being connected to their abuser for life.”
The prosecutors are comprised from states that plan to protect reproductive rights like California and Illinois, but also include those from 11 states that plan to implement stricter restrictions like Texas, Louisiana, and Alabama.
“This is a sad day in America,” said Gascón, who is one of the 83 elected prosecutors who signed the pledge. “The Supreme Court has told half the population that it has no right to bodily autonomy. One Justice said out loud that we should reconsider even more rights, including the right of everyone to love and marry who they choose. I grieve for all those women who have lost so much today, and for all those people who live in fear that they will lose more tomorrow.”
The represented states and territories include Georgia, California, Missouri, Virginia, New York, Maryland, Alabama, Colorado, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Mississippi, Texas, Vermont, Oregon, Illinois, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Maine, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Hawaii, Indiana, Illinois, Washington, Mississippi, New Mexico, Kansas, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, the District of Columbia, and the Northern Mariana Islands.
Republican Ohio Attorney General David Yost filed an “emergency” motion in federal court on Friday to dissolve the injunction against the state’s Heartbeat Law, he said in a post on his Twitter account.
“We filed a motion in federal court moments ago to dissolve the injunction against Ohio’s Heartbeat Law, which had been based on the now-overruled precedents of Roe and Casey,” he said in the tweet.
The injunction was filed on July 2019 according to the motion.
In Georgia, Attorney General Chris Carr has filed notice with the 11th Circuit requesting it reverse the District Court’s decision and allow the state’s Heartbeat Law to take effect, according to a press release from his office.
“I believe in the dignity, value and worth of every human being, both born and unborn. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs is constitutionally correct and rightfully returns the issue of abortion to the states and to the people – where it belongs,” Carr said.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed a restrictive abortion bill into law in 2019, but it was blocked by a federal judge later that year.
Sisters Jeanne, a Florida Republican, and Joni, a Minnesota Democrat, are divided by geography and political party.
But when they landed — together — on a flight into New York this morning, getting the news from their seatback televisions, they shared the same “disappointment” with the court’s decision.
Jeanne, who did not want to give her last name, described herself as a “financial conservative” and said she was puzzled by the intense focus on abortion by some in her party.
Joni, who also did not want to provide her surname, is a Democrat and practicing nurse. She said she expected her home state to become a magnet for women seeking legal abortions.
“I never advocate for someone to use abortion as a form of birth control,” she said. “But everyone should be able to decide for themselves. … I don’t walk in someone else’s shoes. How do I know — maybe (giving birth) is going to be tough on their mental health? It’s not such a black-and-white issue.”
Another point they agreed on: Decision-makers in Washington — from the Supreme Court to Capitol Hill — were the last people they wanted rendering such a convulsive judgment.
Despite their shared frustration with the ruling and “big gridlock” in federal government, neither sister said the overturning of Roe v. Wade was going to set them on a new path of activism.
They won’t be attending any protests tonight — instead, it’s on to Broadway with tickets to see “Company,” the award-winning revival of a production that debuted in 1970, three years before Roe v. Wade was decided.
The five-justice Supreme Court bloc that overturned a half century of women’s abortion rights on Friday had coalesced less than two years. But they had found their moment and they seized it.
This is America’s new Supreme Court, moving swiftly, rejecting the incrementalism of Chief Justice John Roberts, and upsetting individual privacy rights in an epic decision that will reverberate for decades.
No matter how much of a preview the country received when an early draft was leaked in May, the sweep and audacious tone of the final ruling still breathtaking.
The court rejected that landmark and a series of abortion rights decisions that followed, including the 1992 decision that reaffirmed Roe as key justices then in the majority declared they might not have voted for Roe but accepted the decision that had become ingrained in society.
Their sentiment and that of most of the justices who have joined the high court since 1973 was that neither the country nor the court itself could go backward. Institutional integrity and the revered principle of stare decisis, adherence to precedent, demanded that.
But that is not this court. Today’s justices on the right wing are unlike the Republican-appointed conservatives who first voted for Roe and then upheld it, joined by justices on the left. The three Donald Trump appointees, including Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who joined the bench in October 2020 and anchored the Friday decision, have not hedged on abortion rights.
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The Department of Homeland Security intelligence branch notified law enforcement, first responders and private sector partners nationwide Friday of potential domestic violence extremist activity in response to the Supreme Court’s decision on abortion, according to a memo obtained by CNN.
The memo, from the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis, says federal and state government officials, including judges “probably are at most risk for violence in response to the decision.”
It also includes warnings about “First Amendment protected events,” reproductive and “family advocacy health care facilities,” and faith-based organizations being targets for violence or criminal incidents.
DHS previously released a National Terrorism Advisory System bulletin warning of potential violence surrounding the Supreme Court ruling on abortion rights.
The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade Friday, holding that there is no longer a federal constitutional right to an abortion. Going forward, abortion rights will be determined by states, unless Congress acts.
Here are the answers to some of the most common questions about what this ruling means.
Will women get arrested for having an abortion?
An abortion-seeker’s criminal liability will depend on the abortion policies that her state put into place.
Leaders of the anti-abortion movement have said in the past that women shouldn’t be prosecuted for obtaining an abortion and that criminal laws prohibiting it should be aimed at abortion providers or others who facilitate the procedure. Several states with abortion prohibitions that could go into effect with Roe’s reversal have language exempting from prosecution the woman who obtained the abortion.
There’s also nothing to stop lawmakers from passing the laws calling for the prosecution of the people who sought the abortion.
In the event of rape or incest or even underage pregnancy, where does the law lie for these individuals?
Exemptions in abortion bans for rape, incest or the health of the mother will now vary state by state. In the wave of abortion limits that have been passed by state legislatures recently in anticipation of the Supreme Court’s ruling, only a few of the proposals included exemptions for rape and incest.
It’s a question lawmakers will likely revisit now that the opinion has been handed down. While previewing plans to call a special legislative session once the opinion is issued, Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said he opposed rape or incest exemptions. On the flip side, Arkansas Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson told CNN this May that he supported adding rape and incest exemptions in the trigger law currently on the books in the state.
How are in vitro fertilizations defined? If a state defines the fertilized egg as a human with rights, then if a doctor fertilizes four eggs, but does [not] implant all four in a woman, is that homicide?
What this opinion means for fertility treatments is still uncertain. Some state laws have language that would appear to exempt the disposal of unused embryos created for IVF, but that language doesn’t necessarily exempt the process of selective reduction — when a woman whose fertility treatments lead to multiple pregnancies has one or more of those fetuses terminated to protect the viability of the other fetuses and/or the health of the mother. More broadly, fertility law experts raise concerns about how Roe’s reversal will embolden lawmakers to regulate IVF procedures — which have been largely shielded from the abortion debate because of the protections of Roe.
Why does the currently Democrat-controlled legislature not pass a federal law making abortion legal?
Democrats currently lack the votes to dismantle the Senate filibuster, a 60-vote procedural mechanism that Republicans can use to block federal abortion rights legislation — so as long as 40 senators oppose abortion rights. But it’s worth noting that the Women’s Health Protection Act — a bill that would codify and expand upon Roe — failed 49-51 when it was voted on in May in the Senate, meaning that, even without the filibuster, it would have not become law.
There are also legal questions about whether it would be constitutional for federal lawmakers to enact a nationwide ban. The late Justice Antonin Scalia stressed in his legal writings about abortion that the policy decisions belonged in the hands of individual states, while expressing skepticism that Congress has the constitutional authority to regulate the procedure.
Get more answers to common questions here.
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge on Friday signed a certification that prohibits abortions in the state.
Rutledge certified Act 180, which passed in the state in 2019.
Through tears, Rutledge said, “I will always recall where I was when the Dobbs decision came down. As the first woman ever elected attorney general, as someone who it took a long time for God to decide it was time for me to be a mom, I can’t wait for other women across Arkansas to have that same joy of seeing their child’s face that maybe they would not have seen had it not been for today’s decision.”
Rutledge earlier said, “none of us thought today would come in our lifetimes,” adding, “Roe was wrong on that day and it has been wrong every day since.”
Rutledge said the Supreme Court decision puts Arkansas’ anti-abortion laws in place and allows the state to ban abortions — with the only exception being to save the life of a mother in a medical emergency.
During the news conference, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said the decision is “a turning point for our nation.”
Hutchinson said he will be directing the Arkansas Department of Health to enforce the new law in the state and make sure any abortion provider is in compliance and understand the penalties.
“This does not put at risk access to contraceptives or other issues that are tangentially related,” he said.
The state regulation of abortions can still be challenged, he said. But that challenge cannot be based on a constitutional right.
“We need as a state and a nation to continue to support women who have unwanted pregnancies, and for some they see abortion as an only solution,” Hutchinson added.
CNN spoke with a number of young women in favor of abortion access on Friday who expressed fear and anger following the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“I’m torn and scared for the future,” said Nisa Ortiz, a 25-year-old mother of a four-year-old daughter.
“This is scary. I’m scared for my friends who have had pregnancy complications before, and the younger generation of 13-to-21-year-olds will face the brunt of it,” she said.
Nicolette Carrion, a 19-year-old from New York, pointed to the impact this decision could have on women of color.
“As a woman of color, it’s obvious there is a racial wealth gap that exists,” Carrion said, adding that she worries about less access for sexual health resources depending on one’s socioeconomic background.
“As a result of this decision, women are deemed to just be this vessel for having children,” she said, pointing to the reality that it was mostly men who made the decision. “Now we’re just objects, where our reproductive abilities are controlled by the state we live in.”
Celeste Lintz, a 21-year-old student at University of Pittsburgh, said she was studying abroad in South Africa when the draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked earlier this year.
At the time, Lintz said, “I was very, very scared to come back to the United States to see what was going to happen.”
“My initial reaction is disgust. I felt physically ill. But my most pressing feeling was anger and rage,” said Olivia Julianna, a 19-year-old political strategy specialist for the group Gen-Z for Change, a collective of online creators and activists.
The Texan expressed her anger with Texas’ Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, adding that she is working to ensure he is not elected again.
“Although I may not work on the ground or in a clinic, I use digital advocacy and the power of social media to share information and resources to people across the country and rally them behind calls to action concerning reproductive healthcare,” she said.
Celestina Sunny, a 23-year-old from Dallas, said she believes that if lawmakers want to prevent abortion, they should consider investments into sex education.
“What’s most heartbreaking to me is that this decision is really going to affect women who are already marginalized and whose socioeconomic position already predicates safe abortion access. I’m really thinking about them today,” she said.
Vice President Kamala Harris slammed the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade in remarks in Illinois on Friday. Harris was initially supposed to unveil a new administration strategy to improve maternal health, but said “this is a health care crisis.”
“For nearly 50 years, we have talked about what Roe v. Wade protects,” Harris said in a speech. “Today … we can only talk about what Roe v. Wade protected. Past tense. This is a health care crisis.”
The vice president, the first woman elected to the office in the US, said millions of women will go to bed tonight without access to the same healthcare protections that they had just this morning. And that their mothers and grandmothers had as well.
Harris said the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade today could also affect other “rights that we thought were settled” — including same-sex marriage.
“This opinion also says when you read it, that abortion is not deeply rooted in our nation’s history. They offer that in the opinion as a foundation for the decision they rendered today. In holding that it is not deeply rooted in our history, today’s decision on that theory, then, calls into question other rights that we thought were settled, such as the right to use birth control, the right to same-sex marriage, the right to interracial marriage,” the vice president said, speaking in Illinois.
“You have the power to elect leaders who will defend and protect your rights. And as the president said earlier today, with your vote, you can act, and you have the final word. So this is not over,” she said.
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Now that the Supreme Court has given the green light for lawmakers to prohibit abortion, several states, most of them Republican-led, have taken quick steps to do so. In at least seven states, state officials say that abortion bans can now be enforced.
Three states — Kentucky, Louisiana and South Dakota — have so-called “trigger bans” that went into effect automatically with the Supreme Court’s reversal Friday of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that had established a constitutional right to an abortion. Ten other states have trigger bans with implementation mechanisms that occur after a set period or after a step taken by a state government entity.
Among the trigger-ban states in the latter category, Missouri has already made the move required to implement its ban on abortion, with state Attorney General Eric Schmitt announcing Friday that he had taken the step of certification laid out by Missouri law.
Oklahoma, which had recently put in place a law banning most abortions, has also taken the step of implementing its trigger ban, according to a certification letter from the attorney general tweeted by a state Senate leader on Friday. Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge also certified the state’s trigger ban, allowing it take effect on Friday, Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced.
In Texas, where the trigger ban is to be implemented on the 30th day after the Supreme Court ruling, Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced that local prosecutors may now begin enforcing an abortion ban passed by the state before the Roe ruling. Several other states have similar pre-Roe bans, but it’s not clear yet whether they’ll now seek to enforce them and whether such maneuvers will be challenged in court.
Other states have prohibitions on abortion that had been blocked by courts that had cited Roe’s guarantee of a right to abortion. Those states may act quickly to have those court orders lifted so that those restrictions can go into effect. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey referenced a court order that had halted the state’s 2019 abortion ban and said in a statement that Alabama “will immediately ask the court to strike down any legal barriers to enforcing this law.”
It’s likely that elsewhere in the country, state legislatures will soon be called back into session to pass strict abortion laws that previously would have run afoul of Roe.
Indiana’s Republican Gov. Eric J. Holcomb is calling for a return of the General Assembly on July 6 so that legislators can consider anti-abortion legislation.
CNN’s Tami Luhby and Avery Lotz contributed to this report.
Linda Coffee, who was the lead attorney for Norma McCorvey — known in court documents as Jane Roe — in the 1973 case Roe v. Wade, said the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn it “flies in the face of American freedom.”
“In addition, the decision will set up years of litigation over the commerce clause and a woman’s inability to receive acceptable health care state-to-state. The added cost and inconvenience of a woman seeking needed health care, and facing the lack of services in her state, is a direct attack on the right to privacy, as well as equality expected when it is violation of the commerce clause of federal law and the US Constitution. The litigation will be endless, and chaos will ensure for American women, as a class of citizens.”
Some background: McCorvey was a Texas resident who sought to obtain an abortion. Texas law prohibited abortions except to save the pregnant mother’s life. McCorvey was pregnant when she became the lead plaintiff in the case. She gave up the baby for adoption.
McCorvey has since come forward and spoken against abortion. In 1997, McCorvey started Roe No More, an anti-abortion outreach organization that was dissolved in 2008. McCorvey died on February 18, 2017. In the 2020 documentary “AKA Jane Roe,” prior to her death in 2017, McCorvey told the film’s director that she hadn’t changed her mind about abortion but became an anti-abortion activist because she was being paid.
Dozens of House Republicans gathered for a news conference Friday to celebrate the Supreme Court decision eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion.
With women lawmakers at the front of the stage, they hailed the ruling overturning Roe v Wade as a victory for the pro-life moment and vowed to keep fighting for anti-abortion causes.
“Today’s historic Supreme Court decision is a victory for the sanctity of life. It will save countless innocent children. House Republicans are incredibly grateful for the pro-life movement’s tireless efforts for decades, leading to this day to give a voice to the voiceless and protect our most vulnerable unborn babies,” said House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik. “As a new mom, I know there is nothing more extraordinary than the miracle of life. Hearing Sam’s heartbeat for the first time – I’m gonna cry – was the greatest blessing and gift for our family.”
“Hallelujah. I woke up this morning praying for this,” said freshman Rep. Mayra Flores, who was just sworn in this week and also delivered remarks in Spanish. “If we want to see real change in bringing crime down, we need to raise a generation to respect life in the womb.”
“This is certainly a day that pro-lifers have been waiting for for 49 years,” said Rep. Michelle Fischbach.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the top Republican on the House Energy and Committee, railed against a House-passed bill to codify Roe and other Democratic policies, accusing Democrats of “forcing an extreme agenda on America.”
Rep. Chris Smith, one of the leading anti-abortion voices in the GOP who is the sponsor of a 20-week nationwide abortion ban, called it a “brand new opportunity to defend the weakest and most vulnerable from the violence of abortion.”
“While this is a major step forward … we’re in an area where we’ve got to fight even harder to defend these innocent children,” Smith said.
House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy called for a “peaceful reaction” to the ruling and said the Department of Justice “must step up to protect our justices, their family, churches and pro-life pregnancy centers from unprovoked violence.”
When asked by CNN about what bills he would put on the floor if the GOP recaptures the majority, McCarthy did not commit to putting any specific pieces of anti-abortion legislation on the House floor.
“We will continue to look wherever we can go to save as many lives as possible,” McCarthy said.
But after the presser, Rep. Ann Wagner told CNN that she has reassurance that one of the very first bills a GOP-led House would vote on is her “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act”, which requires medical care to be given to an infant that survives an attempted abortion, even though medical care would already be required under such a scenario.
Vice President Kamala Harris will address the Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade in remarks Friday in Illinois, ahead of scheduled remarks on maternal health.
A White House official said Harris watched President Biden’s speech from a classroom at the CW Avery Family YMCA in Plainfield, Illinois.
“She was joined by Senator Durbin, Congresswoman Lauren Underwood, CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, HRSA Administrator Carole Johnson, and staff,” the official added in a statement to reporters traveling.
“The Vice President did not go on a scheduled tour at the YMCA. She is conferring with staff and will address the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade while at the YMCA,” the official added.
Planned Parenthood and other abortion-rights groups condemned threats of destruction and violence Friday ahead of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The statement came amid calls from a group known as “Jane’s Revenge” which has claimed responsibility for attacks on a number of anti-abortion rights centers across the country in recent weeks.
“Jane’s Revenge” is calling for a “Night of Rage” after the historic Supreme Court ruling is released. The calls have prompted United States Capitol Police to warn officers about the group, according to an internal memo that was issued last week and seen by CNN.
“The group’s attacks are likely to continue in the near future and increase in intensity if the decision as written stands,” the USCP memo read, adding the group is “cellular” in nature and lacks a formal leadership structure.
“We reject the tactics and threats of groups that use destruction and violence as a means to an end,” a joint statement from Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and the Liberate Abortion Campaign read.
“They do not speak for us, our supporters, our communities, or our movement. We are committed to protecting and expanding access to abortion and reproductive freedoms through peaceful, non-violent organizing and activism,” it added.
French President Emmanuel Macron pledged “solidarity” with women in the United States on Friday after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna also said on Friday the decision was “appalling.”
She wrote on Twitter: “Appalling: the overturning by the US Supreme Court of the right to abort is a major setback for fundamental rights.”
“France will continue to defend them,” she added.
Celebrities are voicing their opinions after the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Here’s what some of them are saying on social media:
Taylor Swift
Superstar Taylor Swift, quote-tweeting former first lady Michelle Obama’s statement, said on Twitter: “I’m absolutely terrified that this is where we are - that after so many decades of people fighting for women’s rights to their own bodies, today’s decision has stripped us of that.”
Julianne Hough
On Instagram, dancer and actress Julianne Hough wrote that “Women’s rights are human rights. We must keep fighting,” along with a clip of her from the Broadway show “POTUS.”
Mark Ruffalo
Actor Mark Ruffalo on Twitter said the Supreme Court has been “turned into a political organ of the religious right.”
Jamie Lee Curtis
Actress Jamie Lee Curtis posted a pink square on Instagram, writing: “As a MOTHER of two children born from other women who CHOSE to carry them to full-term which allowed me to be a mother, at this MOMENT, more than ever before, I will do EVERYTHING in my power to protect the RIGHTS of my daughters to make any CHOICE that involves THEIR bodies with THEIR own minds and without ANY governmental influence or restriction.”
Padma Lakshmi
“People will still get abortions. These procedures won’t stop just because Roe v. Wade is overturned. This will only prevent safe, legal abortions from taking place,” model and TV host Padma Lakshmi said in a Twitter thread, calling the ruling a “catalyst for a public health crisis.”
Danny DeVito
Here’s how the actor succinctly summed up his feelings about the decision.
Friday’s Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, meaning that there is no longer a federal constitutional right to an abortion, brought reaction from both sides of the issue.
Here’s what it looked like at the Supreme Court immediately following the decision:
Levi Strauss & Co — the 169-year-old jean company — stands strongly against restricting access to abortion, the company said in a statement Friday, after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
“We stand strongly against any actions that hinder the health and well-being of our employees, which means opposing any steps to restrict access to the full range of reproductive health care, including abortion,” the company said in a statement.
The company said it will continue to protect employees — making sure they have access to the care they need regardless of where they live.
The company said through the Levi Strauss Foundation it is providing grants to the Center for Reproductive Rights, Afiya Center and ARC-Southeast, which provides direct assistance to women and communities in need of care.
Kristen Day, the executive director of Democrats For Life of America, said the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade gives them an opportunity to “go back to the states and see how we can really do more to focus on what women really need.”
Some context: CNN’s most recent poll conducted by SSRS showed that 66% of people did not want Roe v. Wade it to be overturned. This closely matches a recent CBS News/YouGov poll, which indicated that 64% of Americans want to keep the Constitutional right to abortion as it is.
Additionally, about 60% of Americans are in favor of keeping first-trimester abortions legal, the poll shows.
aier Becerra, secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, on Friday called the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade “unconscionable,” saying abortion is a basic and essential part of health care.
“Today’s decision is unconscionable,” Becerra said in a statement released by the agency. “Abortion is a basic and essential part of health care – and patients must have the right to make decisions about their health care and autonomy over their own bodies.”
Becerra said that he has supported reproductive rights both as a member of Congress and as California’s attorney general.
The US Food and Drug Administration has not yet formally commented on the Supreme Court’s decision.
FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf did not give a reaction when asked during an Aspen Ideas Health panel on Friday.
“I’m not going to react to the decision. I’m not going to talk about the decision,” Califf said when asked for his reaction as a physician and public health official. “What I will say is that the science and the medicine haven’t changed. We have a big Supreme Court decision and we have to digest that and look into it further before I’m going to react.”
omer President Donald Trump praised the Supreme Court’s undoing of national abortion protections, calling it “the biggest win for life in a generation” in a statement hours after the decision was handed down on Friday.
“Today’s decision… along with other decisions that have been announced recently, were only made possible because I delivered everything as promised, including nominating and getting three highly respected and strong Constitutionalists confirmed to the United States Supreme Court,” Trump said.
This is a far cry from an interview he gave to The New York Times last month where he declined to take credit for Roe v. Wade’s reversal following the leak of a draft opinion in the Dobbs case.
“I never like to take credit for anything,” Trump said at the time.
In his Friday statement, Trump instead touted his administration’s appointment of conservative Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
“It was my great honor to do so!” he said, attacking Democrats, the media and so-called RINO Republicans.
Here’s how some governors are responding after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade:
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul
Hochul tweeted in response to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade: “Today the Supreme Court rolled back the rights of millions of Americans, disregarding their interests and — more importantly — their lives. Access to abortion is a fundamental human right, and it remains safe, accessible, and legal in New York.”
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds
“As Governor, I won’t rest until every unborn Iowan is protected and respected,” she said.
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu
Sununu issued the following statement after the United States Supreme Court ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade:
“Regardless of this Supreme Court decision, access to these services will continue to remain safe, accessible, and legal in New Hampshire.”
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
Whitmer pledged to “fight like hell” after the Supreme Court decision.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott
“Texas will always fight for the innocent unborn, and I will continue working with the Texas legislature and all Texans to save every child from the ravages of abortion and help our expectant mothers in need,” he said.
Florida Gov. Ron. DeSantis
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis released a statement on Twitter Friday, saying, “By properly interpreting the Constitution, the Supreme Court has answered the prayers of millions upon millions of Americans.”
“The prayers of millions have been answered. For nearly fifty years, the U.S. Supreme Court has prohibited virtually any meaningful pro-life protection, but this was not grounded in the text, history or structure of the Constitution. By properly interpreting the Constitution, the Dobbs majority has restored the people’s role in our republic and a sense of hope that every life counts.”
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade Friday “represents a major setback after five decades of protection for sexual and reproductive health and rights.”
“It is a huge blow to women’s human rights and gender equality,” she added.
Bachelet said more than 50 countries with previously restrictive laws have liberalized their abortion legislation over the past 25 years.
“With today’s ruling, the US is regrettably moving away from this progressive trend,” she said.
aadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reacted to the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the US Supreme Court, calling the news of the ruling “horrific.”
“My heart goes out to the millions of American women who are now set to lose their legal right to an abortion,” Trudeau said in a tweet. “I can’t imagine the fear and anger you are feeling right now.”
Trudeau went on to express his support for Canadian women to have the right to choose.
In a tweet, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly called today a dark day for women around the world.
“This reversal of decades of hard fought gains will endanger the lives of women across the United States and jeopardize further rights,” Joly said. “We must remember that no country is immune: Your voice matters. Your vote matters.”
See Trudeau’s tweet:
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and leaders in the South Dakota State Legislature, in response to the US Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, jointly announced plans for a special session later this year “to save lives and help mothers impacted by the decision.”
According to a release from the governor’s office, the exact dates of the special session will be decided after discussion with legislative leadership.
“The Legislature intends to take the time to make sure South Dakota law protects the unborn and helps mothers,” the release said.
South Dakota’s trigger law provides that as of today, all abortions are illegal in South Dakota “unless there is appropriate and reasonable medical judgment that performance of an abortion is necessary to preserve the life of the pregnant female,” according to the release.
In the wake of the Supreme Court striking down Roe v. Wade, the Congressional Black Caucus, led by Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, is calling on President Biden to declare a national emergency.
The statement said the decision to restrict access to abortion care “will disproportionately endanger the lives of Black Americans.”
“We have seen what life was like pre-Roe v. Wade, and America cannot afford to go back,” the statement added.
Who gets abortions: Black women are three times more likely than White women to die of pregnancy-related complications, encounter racism from health care providers at higher rates, face unequal pay and are more likely than their White counterparts to lack health insurance.
Abortion rights advocates say the pay disparity alone hampers Black women’s ability to secure affordable childcare and housing. And there are no federal laws that mandate paid maternity leave. Activists also argue that there has been little movement on federal police reform that they say would create safer environments for Black women to raise their children.
Some context: CNN has previously reported that Biden’s administration has been working for months in preparation for the expected decision by the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
Options for moves Biden could take include executive action that could make it easier for women to travel to receive abortions in states where the procedure is still legal or expanding access to medication abortion through the mail. Some advocates have also suggested leasing federal land for abortion clinics, bypassing state laws that restrict them.
CNN’s Nicquel Terry Ellis contributed to this report
She knew it was coming, but when word of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade popped up on Emma Green’s phone this morning, the 19-year-old from West Virginia was stunned.
“I felt sick to my stomach,” Green said. “My heart dropped because it felt more real. When (the draft court opinion leaked) there was still hope. Now it’s more real.”
Green, a marketing student at West Virginia University in Charleston, said she fully expected her home state to implement full prohibition.
West Virginia has a so-called “zombie law” on the books banning abortion dating back more than a century that could snap back into effect with the high court’s ruling — a step that Republican Gov. Jim Justice appears prepared to push forward.
“I will not hesitate to call a special session after consulting with the Legislature and my legal team if clarification in our laws needs to be made,” Justice said in a statement.
Tonight, Green will join friends at a protest. For a Democrat who follows the news closely, but has never been an activist, she said, “It’ll be a good start.”
President Biden said the Supreme Court’s decision to end the Constitutional right to abortion “cannot be the final word” as he urged Congress to act and voters to take their frustrations to the polls.
“My administration will use all of its appropriate lawful powers. Congress must act, and with your vote, you can act,” Biden said.
The President said the decision has made the US an “outlier among developed nations in the world,” but it “is not over.”
Biden also called on those protesting the decision to remain peaceful.
“I call on everyone no matter how deeply they care about this decision to keep all protests peaceful — peaceful, peaceful, peaceful. No intimidation. Violence is never acceptable,” he said, adding that “threats and intimidation are not speech.”
President Biden said his administration will protect the “bedrock right” of women to travel from states that ban abortion to those that allow it, also pledging to protect women’s access to medications.
“If any state or local official — high or low — tries to interfere with a woman exercising her basic right to travel, I will do everything in my power to fight that deeply un-American attack,” he added.
He also vowed to protect women’s access to medications approved by the FDA and contraception.
Some states are saying that “they’ll try to ban or severely restrict access to these medications,” Biden said, adding that “extremist governors and state legislators are looking to block the mail or search a person’s medicine cabinet” are “wrong and extreme and out of touch with the majority of Americans.”
Biden said health organizations have said that “by limiting access to these medicines, maternal mortality will climb in America.”
He adde the Department of Health and Human Services will ensure medications are available “to the fullest extent possible.”
Friday’s Supreme Court ruling that overturns Roe v. Wade is “literally taking America back 150 years,” said President Biden.
Biden looked ahead to the elections in November and said voters must vote for representatives who will restore abortion rights.
“Let me be very clear and unambiguous. The only way we can secure a woman’s right to choose … is for Congress to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade as federal law. No executive action from the President can do that,” he said.
“And if Congress, as it appears, lacks the votes to do that now, voters need to make their voices heard. This fall, you must elect more senators and representatives who will codify a woman’s right to choose into federal law once again,” Biden added.
WATCH:
President Biden said the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade marks a “sad day for the court and for the country.”
Biden said with the Constitutional protection gone, “the health and life of women in this nation are now at risk.”
The President said as the vice president and now as President, he has studied this case carefully to inform decisions about who to nominate to sit on the Supreme Court.
“I believe Roe v. Wade was the correct decision,” he said.
President Biden, speaking after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, placed the ruling on the three justices named by former President Trump, adding that “it’s a realization of an extreme ideology.”
“It was three justices named by one president, Donald Trump, who were the core of today’s decision to upend the scales of justice and eliminate a fundamental right for women in this country. Make no mistake, this decision is a culmination of a deliberate effort over decades to upset the balance of our law,” Biden said.
“The court has done what it’s never done before, expressly take away a constitutional right that is so fundamental to so many Americans that had already been recognized. The court’s decision to do so will have real and immediate consequences,” he said.
The White House joined a call following the Supreme Court’s ruling on Roe v. Wade Friday with key stakeholders, a source familiar with the call tells CNN, previewing forthcoming announcements on administrative actions on women’s reproductive health.
The Biden administration is expected to make three announcements, the source said, made by President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Attorney General Merrick Garland. The administration will enforce protection for medication-induced abortion and the Department of Health and Human Services will increase access to those medications. Women will have the right to travel to other states for abortion care and the Department of Justice will protect them if they choose to do so. And the Justice Department will also protect providers to advise women on abortions.
The President is also expected to call on Americans to elect candidates who support abortion rights and to call on Congress to codify the protections in Roe.
Representatives from NARAL, Planned Parenthood and Emily’s List were among those on the call.
President Biden is delivering remarks on the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion, according to the White House.
“It’s a sad day for the court and for the country,” Biden said, speaking from the White House.
The White House has been bracing for the ruling from the nation’s highest court, which was announced Friday morning, and has been planning next steps for months.
While there is little the President can do through executive action to fully mitigate the decision — and virtually nothing he can do to restore the nationwide right to an abortion — there are a number of steps Biden has been weighing in consultation with policy aides, political advisers and lawyers.
Some of the options the President has been considering include eliminating barriers to accessing medication abortion and challenging state laws that criminalize out-of-state travel to receive an abortion, CNN has reported. The President could also declare a public health emergency, which could shield doctors from legal liability if they treat patients in states where they are not licensed.
The President has also called for Congress to pass legislation codifying Roe v. Wade, but Democrats currently don’t have the votes in the Senate to send such legislation to Biden’s desk.
Jim Obergefell, the lead plaintiff in the US Supreme Court case that legalized same-sex marriage, responded to Justice Clarence Thomas writing separately to call explicitly for the court to reconsider its rulings striking down state restrictions on contraceptives, state sodomy bans and state prohibitions on same-sex marriage.
In their dissent, the liberal justices wrote “no one should be confident that this majority is done with its work.”
“The right Roe and Casey recognized does not stand alone,” they wrote. “To the contrary, the Court has linked it for decades to other settled freedoms involving bodily integrity, familial relationships, and procreation. Most obviously, the right to terminate a pregnancy arose straight out of the right to purchase and use contraception. In turn, those rights led, more recently, to rights of same-sex intimacy and marriage.”
Obergefell called the overturning of Roe v. Wade “a sad day” for women’s rights.
“The reality is that women today will have less rights than their own mothers. We are going backwards and it’s both enraging and terrifying to see the excessive government overreach that this court is imposing on our country,” he said.
GOP Sen. Susan Collins said the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was “inconsistent” with what Justice Neil Gorsuch and Justice Brett Kavanaugh said in their testimonies and meetings with her.
“This decision is inconsistent with what Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh said in their testimony and their meetings with me, where they both were insistent on the importance of supporting long-standing precedents that the country has relied upon,” Collins said in a statement on Friday.
The Republican senator said the Justices indicated they believed in the importance of “supporting long-standing precedents that the country has relied upon.”
Collins said earlier this year she introduced legislation with GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski to “codify the abortion rights established by Roe v. Wade and affirmed by Planned Parenthood v. Casey.” The statement said the bill would reinforce the importance of abortion protections.
“Our goal with this legislation is to do what the Court should have done — provide the consistency in our abortion laws that Americans have relied upon for 50 years,” Collins said.
Liberal justices in their dissent of Friday’s Supreme Court ruling said it will impact “countless life decisions,” including “whether and how to invest in education or careers, how to allocate financial resources and how to approach intimate family relationships.”
“Taking away the right to abortion, as the majority does today, destroys all those individual plans and expectations,” the dissent said and emphasized “in so doing, it diminishes women’s opportunities to participate fully and equally in the Nation’s political, social, and economic life.”
The language of the dissent mirrored a “friend of the court brief” filed by economists that targeted the societal and economic effects abortion access has had on women over the last century.
The economists pointed to studies that show that expansion of abortion access ushered in by Roe reduced teen motherhood by 34% and teen marriage by 20%.
“There is a substantial body of well- developed and credible research that shows that abortion legalization and access in the United States has had—and continues to have—a significant effect on birth rates as well as broad downstream social and economic effects, including on women’s educational attainment and job opportunities,” they concluded.
Mississippi and others, including Justice Amy Coney Barrett at oral arguments, had suggested that abortion access is no longer as relevant to women and their families in the modern day due to improvements in health care and adoption laws.
Ann Marie Staff, a 59-year-old registered nurse from outside Chicago, got news of the court’s decision on her walk from a New York City hotel to Washington Square Park.
Sitting on a park bench amid vendors, other tourists and students from nearby New York University, she quietly described the moment as “overwhelming.”
Her partner, Staff said, was an OB-GYN before Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973 and “he told me multiple stories of death attributed to infection and things like that from trying to obtain an abortion.”
Staff said she expected women from neighboring states to begin traveling to Illinois to seek abortion procedures, but worried for those who could not afford the trip.
As she spoke, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker announced plans to call the state assembly into special season in the coming weeks to “more firmly protect women’s reproductive rights in Illinois” and “address the challenges posed” by Roe’s reversal.
A Democrat, Staff seemed pessimistic that lawmakers in Washington would take act in response to the decision.
“I don’t know there’s a lot they can do,” she said. “But they need to pass legislation.”
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin said he was “deeply disappointed that the Supreme Court has voted to overturn Roe v. Wade,” and he was “alarmed” that justices pulled back from their testimonies that it was settled law.
“As a Catholic, I was raised pro-life and will always consider myself pro-life. But I have come to accept that my definition of pro-life may not be someone else’s definition of pro-life. I believe that exceptions should be made in instances of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is in jeopardy. But let me be clear, I support legislation that would codify the rights Roe v. Wade previously protected. I am hopeful Democrats and Republicans will come together to put forward a piece of legislation that would do just that,” he added.
Over in the House of Representatives, Rep. Henry Cuellar, a rare Democrat who opposes abortion rights and narrowly survived his primary against a progressive challenger, was positive on Friday’s ruling.
Cuellar had the backing of Democratic leadership, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in his primary.
Cuellar said he still has the “same position I’ve had. I’m pro-life.”
When CNN’s Manu Raju pointed out that he is in the minority of his caucus on this issue, he replied, “in my district I’m not.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department disagrees with the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“The Supreme Court has eliminated an established right that has been an essential component of women’s liberty for half a century – a right that has safeguarded women’s ability to participate fully and equally in society. And in renouncing this fundamental right, which it had repeatedly recognized and reaffirmed, the Court has upended the doctrine of stare decisis, a key pillar of the rule of law,” according to the statement from Garland.
Garland reiterated that the decision today does not ban states to keep abortion legal within their borders.
“We recognize that traveling to obtain reproductive care may not be feasible in many circumstances. But under bedrock constitutional principles, women who reside in states that have banned access to comprehensive reproductive care must remain free to seek that care in states where it is legal. Moreover, under fundamental First Amendment principles, individuals must remain free to inform and counsel each other about the reproductive care that is available in other states,” he said.
The DOJ “will work tirelessly to protect and advance reproductive freedom” and “strongly supports efforts by Congress to codify Americans’ reproductive rights,” according to his statement.
Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Alexis McGill Johnson said that supporters of abortion access will not back down. In a statement on Friday, McGill said “anyone today who is scared, or angry, or determined” following the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade that “we will rebuild and reclaim the freedom that is ours.”
“To anyone today who is scared, or angry, or determined, know this — 17 million Planned Parenthood supporters proudly stand with you. We will rebuild and reclaim the freedom that is ours. We won’t go back. And we won’t back down,” she said.
Planned Parenthood Action Fund on Friday emphasized that abortion is “still legal in most of the country” and directed “people who need care” to abortionfinder.org, a website that lists abortion service providers.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren said there are ways now to “fight back” against the ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, accusing Supreme Court justices of not staying true to their words when they were nominees.
“I am spitting mad over this. We have six extremist justices on the United States Supreme Court who have decided that their moral and religious views should be imposed on the rest of America. This is not what America wants,” Warren told CNN’s Erica Hill.
“And in a democracy on this issue, the Supreme Court does not get the last word, the people do. We are going to fight back. We’ve got tools. We’re going to use them and in November, we’re going to make sure that we elect enough people who believe in that democracy that we can pass Roe v. Wade and make it the law of the land again — only this time we’ll do it by statute and enforce it,” Warren said.
She said justices, when they were appointees, promised to follow the law “but wink, wink, nod, nod, were cleared in order to get where they got today.”
Warren also said that the midterm elections in November will have a focus on abortion.
“It looks like getting two more Democrats in the United States Senate who are willing to support both filibuster reform and making Roe v. Wade the law of the land. It means hanging onto the House of Representatives and it means passing Roe into law. That’s what November will be all about,” she said.
Warren said that she and Sen. Patty Murray led a letter with more than half of Democratic senators calling on President Biden to take immediate federal action to strengthen abortion rights.
“He can make medicated abortion more widely available. He can help with money and time off for people to be able to move across state lines. He can consider using federal lands as a place where we can set up abortion clinics,” she said.
Watch Sen. Warren here:
JPMorgan Chase is clarifying its health care benefits in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade on Friday, saying that abortion has long been a covered service for the bank and starting in July will be included under the company’s health care travel benefit.
“As always, we’re focused on the health and well-being of our employees, and want to ensure equitable access to all benefits,” JPMorgan Chase spokesperson Joseph Evangelisti told CNN on Friday.
In a memo sent to all US JP Morgan employees on June 1, the investment bank noted that it will expand its existing health care travel benefit for any covered service “that can only be obtained far away from your home,” including abortion.
It previously only covered services such as organ transplants and bariatric surgery under that travel benefit.
Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey – one of the GOP’s leading anti-abortion voices who said the issue is what inspired him to run for office – said he’s planning to lower his proposed 20-week abortion ban down to 15 weeks in light of the Supreme Court eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion.
Smith is the chief sponsor of “The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act,” which would ban abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy. The bill has previously passed the House when Republicans were in power, and the GOP has pointed to that measure as a piece of legislation they would like to again put on the floor if they regain control of the chamber next year.
But Smith said he’s planning to make the ban stricter.
“We’re working on something along those lines,” Smith said, when asked by CNN about a nationwide abortion ban. “I have the Pain Capable at 20 weeks. We’re going to lower it to 15. There are all kinds of ideas there.”
“But we don’t have at this point the ability to overcome a veto or a filibuster,” he added.
In anticipation of the Supreme Court ruling on Roe v Wade, House Republicans have started discussing what anti-abortion bills they would put on the floor if they win the majority and have used recent closed-door party meetings to discuss their messaging and strategy on abortion.
CNN reported that earlier this month, the head of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List addressed a House GOP conference meeting, where she talked to members about how to message on the issue and encouraged members to take incremental steps toward banning abortion if they win the majority.
Besides the 20-week ban bill, there is also a stricter measure in the House that would prohibit abortions once cardiac activity is detected, which has more than 100 Republican co-sponsors in the House.
Top House Republicans, however, have been wary to push for stricter, nationwide abortion bans and are instead expected to focus their messaging on calling for bans on so-called late term abortions, which are rare. But Republicans feel like it’s a more popular message and that polling is on their side when it comes to late term abortions.
Dozens of civil and reproductive rights groups are denouncing the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda released a statement calling it a “devastating blow against women’s civil and human rights.”
The NAACP also rejected the move by the Supreme Court with one leader saying it sets the country back to a “dangerous era where basic constitutional rights only exist for a select few.”
Leaders from Movement for Black Lives say the decision further guts reproductive health care access for millions of Black women, girls, transgender and gender nonconforming people.
The Lilith Fund, which provides financial assistance and emotional support for people who need abortions in Texas, responded to the decision with a tweet saying “Another #SCOTUS day and we are struggling.”
Lupe M. Rodríguez, executive director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, said the court’s decision will “directly and disproportionately” harm Latinas and all communities of color. For many, she added, it is a matter of life and death.
##Reactions##
With states now free to ban the procedure, Friday’s ruling sets up the next anticipated abortion fight in court: what states can do to hinder abortions obtained outside their borders.
The liberal justices noted this in their dissent.
As they expressed concerns about the financial and logistical challenges women will face to travel out of state to obtain abortion, the liberals alluded to effort to prevent “interstate travel to obtain an abortion.”
In a concurrence, Justice Brett Kavanaugh tried to quell some of those concerns, as he tried to play down the other legal questions the Friday ruling raises.
Still, even before Friday’s opinion, some red states were testing the waters around how fair they could reach to regulate outside their borders. A proposal in Missouri sought to apply the state’s criminal abortion laws to abortions obtained in other states by its residents. The proposal would even extend to cases where “sexual intercourse occurred within this state and the child may have been conceived by that act of intercourse.”
In Texas, some state lawmakers have vowed to punish companies that pay for the out of state travel of their employees who seek abortions. Medication abortion — and the way that women can order the two-pill regimen over the internet and be delivered it via the mail — is further complicating the legal questions around states efforts to eradicate the procedure. Blue states have proactively sought to protect their providers from extradition and other legal risks if red states try to prosecute them for facilitating an abortion.
As the liberal justices see it, the questions over interstate abortion access is also shaping up to the next big court battle that Friday’s ruling will prompt. They wrote that “the majority’s ruling today invites a host of questions about interstate conflicts.”
At the annual National Right to Life Convention in Atlanta, which is being held this weekend, cheers erupted when someone shouted “Roe’s been overturned!” at 10:10 a.m. ET.
Attendees hugged one another, and some were visibly emotional.
But, Tobias acknowledged: “We have a long battle ahead of us. Abortion is not going to be illegal because of this decision. The elected officials are now going to have to determine what the laws will be – federal and state levels. There’s a lot of work to do. And we need to build a culture that’s pro-mom, pro-baby, pro-life. We certainly know this is not the end.”
Lynda Bell, the chair of the board of NRLC and President of Florida Right to Life, teared up as she described what she was feeling.
“I can barely talk,” she said. “We have waited for this for 49 years, and finally, the court has recognized their egregious decision that stripped the states of the ability to protect life,” she said, calling Friday’s ruling the “correction of a terrible, terrible decision.”
“When you fight for something for decades and it comes to fruition, it is just stunning,” she told CNN.
Friday’s Supreme Court ruling that overturns Roe v. Wade will most affect poor women across the United States, CNN senior political analyst Nia-Malika Henderson said.
Poor or low-income woman represent 75% of abortion patients, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.
“If you think about the primary reason why women choose to get an abortion is financial … they can’t afford to have a child,” Henderson said. “A lot of these women already have children. The extra financial burden would be just too much for them to bear.”
Looking at the policies in states that are intent on banning abortions, the question is whether they will expand the social safety net for women who are forced to carry their babies to term, Henderson explained.
“They will have to get all sorts of medical care. Will there be paid family leave at these jobs? We know this is going to fall disproportionately on women who are poor of all races — White, Black, Latino, Asian,” she said. “They can’t afford to go to another state where they can get an abortion.”
There are also legal implications to face if they do manage to travel to another state, and additionally, a lot of questions surround the father of the child in question.
“Think about also the partners of these women. If they’re not together, not living in the same household, now does a man have to start paying child support earlier than they would at this point?” Henderson asked.
The Supreme Court ruling that leaves states to determine their respective abortion rights has now created two Americas, Henderson said.
According to updated guidance from the White House, President Biden will address the Supreme Court decision at 12:30 p.m. ET from the White House.
Abortion rights advocates had long warned about the implications of overturning Roe v. Wade, and liberal justices said in their dissent on Friday that the decision will impact “countless life decisions,” including “whether and how to invest in education or careers, how to allocate financial resources and how to approach intimate family relationships.”
The language of the dissent mirrored a “friend of the court brief” filed by economists that focused on the societal and economic effects abortion access has had on women over the last 50 years.
The economists pointed to studies that show that expansion of abortion access ushered in by Roe reduced teen motherhood by 34% and teen marriage by 20%. “Studies also demonstrate that for women experiencing unintended pregnancies, access to abortion has increased the probability that they attend college and enter professional occupations,” they wrote.
“There is a substantial body of well-developed and credible research that shows that abortion legalization and access in the United States has had — and continues to have — a significant effect on birth rates as well as broad downstream social and economic effects, including on women’s educational attainment and job opportunities,” they concluded.
Attorneys for Mississippi as well as Justice Amy Coney Barrett at oral arguments had suggested that abortion access is no longer as relevant to women and their families in the modern day due to improvements in health care and adoption laws.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in his statement on the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade announced the statewide closure of his agency’s offices Friday “in honor of the nearly 70 million unborn babies killed in the womb since 1973,” according to a release from the attorney general’s office.
“Further,” Paxton added, “we cannot forget the extraordinary violence that Roe and Casey unleashed on our nation. Because of those decisions, almost 70 million babies have been killed in the womb. And so, today at noon, I am closing all my offices as a memorial to these babies. Our hearts and prayers go out to all of them. Never again should something like this happen in America.”
The Supreme Court on Friday overturned Roe v. Wade, holding that there is no longer a federal constitutional right to an abortion.
Going forward, abortion rights will be determined by states, unless Congress acts.
Legislators in 13 states have passed so-called “trigger laws,” meaning that abortion will almost immediately be banned with Roe no longer in effect. In some cases, the law requires an official such as an attorney general to certify that Roe has been struck down before the law can take effect.
Here’s a look at where abortion rights stand across the US:
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry issued a statement on the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Louisiana is one of 13 states with trigger laws that take effect after the court’s decision.
“As noted in both my legal brief to the Supreme Court and the majority’s opinion: the Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision,” according to his statement.
“Because of the Court’s ruling in this case about a Mississippi law limiting abortions after 15 weeks of gestation with exceptions for health emergencies and fetal abnormalities, Louisiana’s trigger law banning abortion is now in effect,” he said.
“My office and I will do everything in our power to ensure the laws of Louisiana that have been passed to protect the unborn are enforceable, even if we have to go back to court,” his statement continued.
The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade Friday, holding that there is no longer a federal constitutional right to an abortion.
Five justices signed onto the majority opinion, striking down the landmark decision. They are:
And three justices dissented:
Chief Justice John Roberts did not join the majority, writing in a concurring opinion that he would not have overturned Roe but instead would have only upheld Mississippi’s law banning abortions after 15 weeks.
The Supreme Court’s opinion on abortion Friday could open the door for courts to overturn same-sex marriage, contraception and other rights.
It’s already set off a debate among justices over whether overturning Roe puts those precedents in danger.
The majority opinion attempted to wall of its holding in Friday’s abortion case from those other rulings, but Justice Clarence Thomas wrote separately to call explicitly for those other rulings to be revisited – a concurrence that the liberals seized upon to argue that those rulings are now at risk.
In their dissent, the liberal justices wrote “no one should be confident that this majority is done with its work.”
“The right Roe and Casey recognized does not stand alone,” they wrote. “To the contrary, the Court has linked it for decades to other settled freedoms involving bodily integrity, familial relationships, and procreation. Most obviously, the right to terminate a pregnancy arose straight out of the right to purchase and use contraception. In turn, those rights led, more recently, to rights of same-sex intimacy and marriage.”
Justice Samuel Alito, in a new section of the opinion that was not present in the leaked draft, responded to the dissenters’ warnings.
He emphasized a line the majority opinion that said “[n]othing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.”
Alito’s assertions were undercut by a concurrence by Justice Thomas, who explicitly called for the court to reconsider its rulings striking down state restrictions on contraceptives, state sodomy bans and state prohibitions on same sex marriage.
“Because any substantive due process decision is ‘demonstrably erroneous,’” Thomas wrote, “we have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents.”
The liberal dissenters used Thomas’ concurrence to go after Alito’s assurances that the court was not putting those precedent at risks by overturning Roe.
“The first problem with the majority’s account comes from JUSTICE THOMAS’s concurrence — which makes clear he is not with the program. In saying that nothing in today’s opinion casts doubt on non-abortion precedents, JUSTICE THOMAS explains, he means only that they are not at issue,” the liberals wrote, as they quoted from Thomas’ concurrence.
“So at least one Justice is planning to use the ticket of today’s decision again and again and again,” they said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also called Friday’s Supreme Court ruling a hypocrisy that will cause endless harm.
“The hypocrisy is raging, but the harm is endless. What this means to women is such an insult. It’s a slap in face to women about using their own judgment to make their own decisions about their reproductive freedom,” she said Friday.
She again criticized the Republicans for supporting pregnancy but opposing “any family planning.”
“I always have said: determination of a pregnancy is just their opening act. It’s just their front game. Behind it and for years, I have seen in this Congress, opposition to any family planning domestic or global.”
Looking ahead to the November elections, she said, reproductive freedom will be on the ballot.
“This is deadly serious,” she said. “A woman’s right to choose, reproductive freedom is on the ballot in November. We cannot allow them to take charge so that they can institute their goal which is to criminalize reproductive freedom.”
Speaking after the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the Republicans are “plotting a nationwide abortion ban.”
“They cannot be allowed to have majority in the Congress to do that. But that’s their goal,” she said Friday.
Juxtaposing the Friday ruling against Thursday’s ruling on guns, Pelosi criticized the court’s stance.
“Such a contradiction. Yesterday, to say the states cannot make laws governing the constitutional right to bear arms. And today, they’re saying the exact reverse that the states can overturn a constitutional right — for 50 years a constitutional right for women having the right to choose.”
“The hypocrisy is raging, but the harm is endless,” she added.
A broad majority of Americans did not want to see Roe vs. Wade overturned, polling taken before the Supreme Court’s decision shows. Here’s a recap of the latest data on the public’s views of abortion, from CNN and elsewhere:
Views on overturning Roe vs. Wade
In a May CNN poll conducted immediately after the leak of the Supreme Court’s draft opinion, Americans said, 66% to 34%, that they did not want the Supreme Court to completely overturn its decision. In CNN’s polling dating back to 1989, the share of the public in favor of completely overturning Roe has never risen above 36%.
Just 17% of Americans in the CNN poll said they’d be happy to see Roe vs. Wade overturned, with 12% saying they’d be satisfied, 21% that they’d be dissatisfied, 36% that they’d be angry, and 14% that they wouldn’t care. Most Democrats (59%) and nearly half of adults younger than 35 (48%) said they’d be angry. And a 59% majority of Americans said they’d support Congress passing a law to establish a nationwide right to abortion, with just 41% opposed.
In a May CBS/YouGov poll, 63% of Americans said they expected that overturning Roe would make abortion access harder for poor women, with 58% saying it would make abortion access more difficult for women of color. Fewer expected similar difficulties for White women (35%) or wealthy women (19%). And a majority of women (54%) said that generally, overturning Roe would make life worse for most American women.
Views on state abortion laws
In the CNN poll, 58% of US adults said that, if Roe were overturned, they’d want their state to set abortion laws that were more permissive than restrictive. About half (51%) said they’d like to see their state become a safe haven for women who wanted abortions but couldn’t get them where they lived.
But not everyone was aware in advance how their own state would be affected. Of Americans living in states with trigger laws to immediately ban abortion after the overturn of Roe, only 45% realized that was the case, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll conducted in May. Another 42% living in those states were unsure what the impact of the ruling would be where they live.
Political implications
It’s still too soon to know how views on abortion might shift in the wake of the Court’s decision, or to forecast how the aftermath of the decision might affect the upcoming election. There are some early signs that the blow to abortion access could be particularly motivational to abortion rights supporters. A significant share of core Democratic backers such as young people and women said they would be angry in the wake of the ruling, and several surveys this spring found Democratic voters more likely than Republican voters to see abortion as a highly relevant issue to this year’s election. But it’s less clear how that motivation might manifest itself, or to what extent it’ll alter the overall political landscape.
A May poll from Monmouth University found that 48% of Democrats considered a candidate’s alignment with their views on abortion to be extremely important to their vote, up from 31% in 2018; among Republicans, the number was 29%, down from 36% four years ago.
CNN polling conducted immediately before and after the leak of a draft Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade found a 7-point rise in the share of Americans who said their views on abortion align more with Democrats than Republicans. But there was little immediate evidence of a sea change in any of the Republicans’ early advantages heading into the midterms.
Views of the Supreme Court
The decision could also affect Americans’ views of the Supreme Court. Following the leak of the draft opinion, Marquette Law School polling found, public approval of the Court fell, from 54% in March to 44% in May. The change was largely due to a shift among Democrats: while 49% of Democrats approved of the Supreme Court in March, just 26% felt the same in May. Marquette’s May poll also found that 23% of Americans viewed the Supreme Court as “very conservative,” an uptick from 15% in March.
Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan issued a dissenting opinion to the Supreme Court’s decision that strikes down Roe v. Wade.
In their joint opinion, the three justices heavily criticized the majority, closing:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the Supreme Court’s “cruel ruling” overturning Roe v. Wade is “outrageous and heart-wrenching.”
Pelosi vowed that Democrats will keep fighting to “enshrine Roe v. Wade into law.”
“A woman’s fundamental health decisions are her own to make, in consultation with her doctor and her loved ones – not to be dictated by far-right politicians,” she said.
“This cruel ruling is outrageous and heart-wrenching. But make no mistake: the rights of women and all Americans are on the ballot this November,” her statement continued.
The final opinion released by the Supreme Court on Friday is strikingly similar to the draft written by Justice Samuel Alito that was leaked earlier this year. It repeats Alito’s scornful language towards the original Roe v. Wade decision that enshrined abortion rights.
“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” both the formal and draft said. “Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.”
Like the draft opinion, Alito included a list of cases that also rested on a right to privacy, as Alito asserted that Roe was distinct from those cases.
“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 destroys what those decisions call ‘potential life’ and what the law at issue in this case regards as the life of an ‘unborn human being,’” Alito wrote, in a line that was also present in the draft.
So what’s new? Alito’s response to the dissent, jointly written by the three liberal justices. The dissent would not have been written at the time that the ultimately leaked draft was circulated around the court.
“The dissent is very candid that it cannot show that a constitutional right to abortion has any foundation, let alone a ‘deeply rooted’ one, ‘in this Nation’s history and tradition.’” Alito wrote. “The dissent does not identify any pre-Roe authority that supports such a right — no state constitutional provision or statute, no federal or state judicial precedent, not even a scholarly treatise.”
In that four-page section, Alito said that the dissent’s failure “engage with this long tradition is devastating to its position.”
Former President Barack Obama criticized Friday’s ruling by the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, saying the court “not only reversed nearly 50 years of precedent, it relegated the most intensely personal decision someone can make to the whims of politicians and ideologues—attacking the essential freedoms of millions of Americans.”
Read his statement:
Former first lady Michelle Obama also issued a statement Friday saying she was “heartbroken” over the Supreme Court’s decision.
“I am heartbroken for people around this country who just lost the fundamental right to make informed decisions about their own bodies,” Obama wrote.
She wrote that the decision “must be a wake-up call, especially to the young people who will bear its burden.”
The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade Friday, holding that there is no longer a federal constitutional right to an abortion.
Here are key lines from the majority opinion:
New York Attorney General Letitia James has responded to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, a decision that holds that there is no longer a federal constitutional right to an abortion.
“I will work tirelessly to ensure our most vulnerable and people from hostile states have access to this lifesaving care. Everyone in this nation deserves the right to make their own decisions about their bodies,” she added.
Groups of protesters are demonstrating outside the Supreme Court after the court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Video footage showed them holding signs and chanting through megaphones.
“It’s a heartbreaking betrayal of half of the country,” former federal prosecutor Jennifer Rodgers said on CNN, choking up a bit while seeing the protesters. “I’m getting — watching the women there — it’s emotional.”
The opinion is the most consequential Supreme Court decision in decades and will transform the landscape of women’s reproductive health in America.
Going forward, abortion rights will be determined by states, unless Congress acts.
A team of senior White House officials has been preparing for months to respond to a Supreme Court decision stripping nationwide abortion rights.
President Biden has been weighing a number of steps to respond to the ruling, but has been constrained by the law and limits on his executive authority.
The options have been under examination by lawyers, policy aides and political advisers since a draft opinion leaked in May.
But aides have been clear that nothing the President can do would restore the nationwide right to abortion.
Among the options the President is considering:
The US Supreme Court just overturned Roe v. Wade, holding that there is no longer a federal constitutional right to an abortion.
Here’s a look at the details of the now-overturned case:
Case
1971 - The case is filed by Norma McCorvey, known in court documents as Jane Roe, against Henry Wade, the district attorney of Dallas County, who enforced a Texas law that prohibited abortion, except to save a woman’s life.
Decision
Jan. 22, 1973 - The US Supreme Court, in a 7-2 decision, affirms the legality of a woman’s right to have an abortion under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The court held that a woman’s right to an abortion fell within the right to privacy (recognized in Griswold v. Connecticut) protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision gave a woman the right to an abortion during the entirety of the pregnancy and defined different levels of state interest for regulating abortion in the second and third trimesters.
The ruling affected laws in 46 states. Full-text opinions by the justices can be viewed here.
Legal Timeline
The Players
McCorvey - Texas resident who sought to obtain an abortion. Texas law prohibited abortions except to save the pregnant mother’s life. McCorvey was pregnant when she became the lead plaintiff in the case. She gave up the baby for adoption.
McCorvey has since come forward and spoken against abortion. In 1997, McCorvey started Roe No More, an anti-abortion outreach organization that was dissolved in 2008. McCorvey died on February 18, 2017. In the 2020 documentary “AKA Jane Roe,” prior to her death in 2017, McCorvey told the film’s director that she hadn’t changed her mind about abortion but became an anti-abortion activist because she was being paid.
Henry Wade - District attorney of Dallas County from 1951 to 1987. McCorvey sued him because he enforced a law that prohibited abortion, except to save a woman’s life. He died on March 1, 2001.
Sarah Weddington - Lawyer for McCorvey
Linda Coffee - Lawyer for McCorvey
Jay Floyd - Argued the case for Texas the first time
Robert C. Flowers - Reargued the case for Texas
Supreme Court Justice Opinions
The decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, with the opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito, is “very similar to that draft opinion that we saw leak”in May, according to CNN’s Jessica Schneider.
“This will have immediate effects here. By all estimates, about half of the states are expected to eliminate the right to abortion. We’ve got about a half-dozen states that have so-called ‘trigger laws’ that their abortion bans will go into effect immediately or within the next 30 days or next few months,” she said.
Schneider said she and other reporters will be digging into the opinion further.
The Supreme Court on Friday ruled on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a case centered on a Mississippi law that bars most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, a standard that violates Roe v. Wade.
Read the court’s opinion here.
The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade Friday, holding that there is no longer a federal constitutional right to an abortion.
The opinion is the most consequential Supreme Court decision in decades and will transform the landscape of women’s reproductive health in America.
Going forward, abortion rights will be determined by states, unless Congress acts. Already, nearly half of the states have or will pass laws that ban abortion while others have enacted strict measures regulating the procedure.
