Supreme Court votes to overturn Roe v. Wade, paving way for state abortion bans

The Supreme Court overturned the half-century-old ruling in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortions nationwide, giving states the power to determine limits on when a woman can terminate a pregnancy.

A majority of justices, each appointed by Republican presidents, joined the opinion authored by Justice Samuel Alito in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, ruling Mississippi can maintain its law banning abortion after 15 weeks of gestation. In addition to Alito, those voting in favor were Amy Coney Barrett, Clarence Thomas , Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh.

A ruling in the case follows the unprecedented leak of the draft opinion on May 2, which signaled to the nation an imminent curtailing of decades of abortion access established under Roe and the 1992 case Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

The high court decided Roe in 1973 under a fundamental "right to privacy" inherent in the due process clause of the 14th Amendment, protecting a woman's choice to have an abortion in a 7-2 ruling. Years later, the court again reaffirmed Roe when it ruled in a 5-4 decision on Casey, which reversed the previous trimester framework in favor of a viability analysis, allowing states to implement abortion restrictions during the first trimester of pregnancy so long as they did not impose an "undue burden."