Abortion Rights Ends in the US As Supreme Court Changed Clock Back 50 Years
In Washington, the US Supreme Court on Friday ended the right to abortion and overturned the 1973 Roe v Wade[1] ruling that accepted abortion as a constitutional right.
The US Supreme Court ruling is on abortion and on Women’s health and comfort and Happiness.
Millions of women were affected in the US after the conclusion given by the supreme court over the decision in the Roe v Wade case.
On 24 June 2022, the SC of the United State overturned by a majority of 6-4 the Roe vs Wade case the court landmark judgment of 1973 that shaped abortion as a constitutional right.
On the 3rd of May, an early draft was lifted by Politico, this decision by politico will change the lives of many women in America. About half country’s states will face restrictions on abortion because of the decision of the Supreme court.
Soon after the decision was made by the Supreme Court of the United States on Friday, the judgment issued by Missouri attorney stated the state “trigger” laws, that state end abortion excluding medical emergencies, as Reported by the New York Times.
All about “Roe v. Wade”?
The case is all about “Roe” the name of the plaintiff who is of the age of 22 named McCorvey. The defendant was Wade named wade, the attorney of Dallas at that time.
‘Abortion illegal was made by Roe in many states of the country, Made the law that Upto fetus is visible abortion can be done when a fetus is visible it can survive outside the womb.
The validity of visibility of fetus was as around for twenty-eight weeks seven months at the time of ‘Roe judgment’ which is closely fifty years ago. According to experts, they admit that the advancement of medicines has brought the threshold down to twenty-three or twenty-four weeks, and advanced studies say that it could be further fixed to twenty-two weeks. The time of average pregnancy is for forty weeks. It is seen as the right of pregnant women that can be parted from the right of an unborn fetus. The time of pregnancy is measured from the start of the women most fresh period of mensuration. Meanwhile, pregnancy is identified by many women after 6 weeks, so this time leaves a woman with less time and less opportunity to make the decision of aborting the child.
This law relies over the world on this mark but those who oppose the adornment of fetuses say that this is an ununiformed timespan that is adopted by legislation and the court in ‘Roe’.
Supreme Court Opinion in Roe v Wade Case
‘Politico’ Alito who given this opinion, had proved ‘Roe’ as extremely wrong from the start, and stated that both ‘Roe’ and ‘Casey’ another landmark judgment of abortion of the year 1992 reasserted the central principle of ‘Roe’, that women have their own right to lay off pregnancies up to the point of foetal viability be overridden.
The opinion of Justice Alito that was in majority which is also supported by four other justices of the Supreme court written in Thomas e Dobbs State Health Officer of Department of Mississippi of Health vs Jackson Women’s Health Organization famously known as the “Mississippi case”.
Justice Chief John G Roberts who was 6th position of Chief Justice ideas were unknown at the time of the Politico scoop getting published. According to Politico, “it is time to pay attention to the constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives”.
The historical review of Roe fluctuated from the constitutionally not to the point. It was very drained and the decision has many destabilized results the draft ruling said.[2]
What next will take place in the US?
Because of the absence of federal law safeguarding abortion right in the US, the Roe overturning case will leave the management of abortion completely in the hand of the government. Restrictive laws will likely to review by the conservative state that ban abortions earlier the Supreme Court of the US set the foetal viability standard in 1973.
According to a report by NYT, it is said that in the absence of protection of ‘Roe; legal abortion in the US Country will drop by 14 percent at least.
ABORTION LAWS IN TEXAS STATE
Since the decision of the Roe v. Wade case in 1973, it is always required in Texas that a doctor can only perform an abortion in that state, abortion clinics were regulated for the safety of patients, and abortion in the third trimester is uncommon and allowed only in the uncompromising severe medical cases. Over the past few decades, politicians who are in opposition to abortion have tried their best to discontinue abortion for the general public by passing unnecessary regulations and limitations.
- 2003- “Women’s Right to Know Act” was passed in Texas, this law instructed doctors not to give information about abortions that tends to mislead the general public and provide ways that are substitutes for pregnancy termination. 24-hour time is given to wait for the patient before the procedure of abortion. 16 weeks or later after gestation the abortion is to be performed in an ambulatory surgical center, i.e., basically a small hospital.
- 2005- Texas totally forbids abortion after 24 numbers of the week in pregnancy growth and also required parents’ permission for patients under 18 years of age.
- 2011- Mandatory sonogram law was enacted in Texas in the year 2011 that requires patients to go under sonogram test before 24 hours of the abortion procedure to take place. Requirements made to doctors by this sonogram law are that the sonogram must be displayed and heartbeat of the fetus must be easy to hear, and a spoken explanation of the sonogram must be given to the patient by the doctor.
- 2013- House bill 2 or HB2 was passed in Texas an edition of the abortion bill that introduced several more restrictions on abortion of the unborn. i.e.,
- Admitting privileges must be there within 30 miles of the facility of abortion.
- After 20 weeks of post-fertilization is banned unless the patient is at death risk or any severe problem is there to the fetus.
- The state-mandated protocol must be followed by doctors while administrating the abortion process
- Standards of ambulatory surgical centers i.e., also known as mini hospitals must be fulfilled by all abortion facilities, even if the swallowing pills process is used for abortion in the facility.
- Advocates of reproductive rights challenged two parts of this abortion law in Supreme Court, disagreeing that the law had nothing to do with the safety and security of patients that was agreed by the Supreme Court, and admitting privileges and ambulatory surgical center requirements were torn down in the year 2016.
- 2015- The burden of proof was heightened in Texas for a minor seeking legal avoidance and the minor’s option for seeking legal avoidance was restricted in a country other than the minor’s own home country.
- 2016- Extra money was demanded by the state health agency of Texas to bury tissues resulting from the process of abortion advocates of reproductive rights challenged this law that it is not related to the safety and health security of patients and was agreed by the Supreme Court and stopped from going into effect.
- 2017- Second-trimester abortion which was considered as safest means of abortion and was very common was banned in Texas, which forced doctors to use experimental procedures or to stop giving second-trimester abortion. Advocates of reproductive rights challenged this law as an unjustified burden on abortion rights which was agreed by the court and stopped the law from going into effect. Also in the year, 2017 insurers were banned to give coverage for abortion in the insurance plan of health that required people to purchase a different insurance plan for the case of abortion.
- 2019- House bill 16 was introduced in Texas that criminalized providers of abortion who do not provide medical treatment facilities if the fetus is born after abortion also there is no record of this case found when Texas started looking into data from the year 2013. This year legislature of Texas passed a ban on government affiliation to medical clinics as no government entities can provide any help to medical clinics that are associated with abortion procedures. This ban cut off support to communities who were dependent on low-cost treatment for birth control, cancer screening, diabetes testing, etc.
- 2021- Senate Bill 8 bill passed in the state legislature, this bill represents a law that bans abortion as early as 6 weeks of pregnancy abortion access throughout the state is restricted and the ban is imposed on abortion. Anyone, whether it is a relative, an abusive partner, or even any stranger, can sue the health care provider and block the process of abortion of a patient after approximability six weeks of pregnancy.
Is Abortion illegal in the US now?
After the turning of the Roe and wade case, abortion still seems legal in some places in the US but states individually are now can make abortion rules or illegal freely. Remove of legal shield that had prevented states from making abortion illegal.
In the absence of Roe vs Wade, the ability of the individual is dependent on the laws in which he/she lives. Abortion is likely to be banned in 23 states and territories as Roe vs Wade was overturned.
Who will be more affected?
Women around in large numbers like 45 million live in the stage of bearing a child where abortion will become very difficult to access, research that supports abortion rights said.
One out of ten women are teenagers who get an abortion, with having the age of 20s. 60 percent of people who abort a fetus are people who had a child before and about 60 percent of people are the first timer who abort the child.
This society will be affected but it will be good for society for a long-term period.
Position of Abortion in India
According to the Act of Medical termination of Pregnancy, In India from the year, 1971 abortion is allow till twenty weeks of pregnancy. The amendment was passed in 2021, through this amendment the time for was raised up to twenty-four weeks, only for pregnant women who are of special categories such as rape or incest people who are surviving, with the consent of their doctors.
In case of fetus disability, The limit of abortion is zero but it should be only allowed by specialist doctors on medical boards set up by the government of states and union territories.[3]
Abortion is entirely prohibited and even criminalized in approximately 16 countries around the world.[4]
Many several catholic majority countries for example Ireland and Mexico decriminalized abortion in the last 10 years.[5]
[1] 410 U.S. 113 (1973)
[2] 505 U.S. 833
597 U.S. (more) 2022 WL 2276808; 2022 U.S. LEXIS 3057
[3] Act No. 34 of 1971
Author: Upanshi Upadhyay
Juris Centre 