The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday morning overturned Americans’ constitutional right to abortion in a landmark ruling that polling shows goes against the will of more than two-thirds of the country’s citizens.
The 6-3 decision — which was led by Justice Samuel Alito, who was accompanied by the five other conservative-leaning Supreme Court Justices — ends the legal right to an abortion after the nearly 50 years since Roe v. Wade determined in 1973 that American women had the constitutional right to make their own decisions about terminating pregnancies.
Abortion rights advocates decried the decision and said it would have an adverse rippling effect across the U.S.
“While the specifics of the court’s ruling will be dissected over the coming hours and days, this much is clear: The court has shown its contempt for the overwhelming majority of Americans who support legal abortion and Roe v. Wade,” Gina Rozman-Wendle, President of Chicago National Organization for Women (NOW) and activist with Chicago For Abortion Rights, said in a statement emailed to NewsOne. “The court has confirmed people’s fears that the majority of its justices, rather than following sound judicial principles of the right to privacy and bodily autonomy versus heavy-handed government control, have chosen to side with the most extreme anti-abortion zealots.”
The ruling came more than a month after a draft of the decision was leaked, sparking an uproar among reproductive rights activists and organizers.
This is a developing story that will be updated as additional information becomes available.
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Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade To Make Abortion Unconstitutional was originally published on newsone.com
