On June 24, 2022, the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision in the landmark abortion case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The decision held that the nearly 50-year precedent, Roe v. Wade 410 U. S. 113, which federally barred states from regulating abortions before fetal viability, and 30-year precedent, Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey 505 U.S. 833, would both be overturned in full. In effect, the Court ruled that the states – the people and their elected representatives, or the federal legislative bodies would be responsible for the regulation or liberalization of their respective abortion laws instead of the Supreme Court.
The dissenting opinions in the case written by Justices Sotomayor, Breyer, and Kagan argued that Roe and Casey were precedent, establishing a fundamental constitutional and moral right that the Court should not revisit, much less overturn. Writing the majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito disagreed. In this decision, the Court found that precedent is not a strong enough standard to maintain a Court case because the original decision lacked sound reason. After analyzing the arguments made by Roe and Casey, as well as cataloging the history and traditions of the United States common law, they found that there is no federal Constitutional right to an abortion, such that the Supreme Court can prohibit states from creating their own schemes for regulation or liberalization.
Opponents of the decision claim that abortion is not the only right the Conservative majority wants to strip away, stoking fears that they may revisit Obergefell, which federally mandated that states grant the same rights and privileges of legitimate heterosexual marriages to homosexual unions, Griswold, prohibiting states from banning contraception for married couples, or Eisenstadt, granting unmarried couples the right to access contraceptives. These fears came from Justice Thomas’ concurrence, which outlined his disagreement with the jurisprudential doctrine of “substantive due-process” on which all of these aforementioned cases were founded, including Roe. Justice Alito explicitly stated that this case would in no way undermine the reasoning of these non-abortion related cases because, as he claims, abortion is a unique situation, involving life, or the potential life of a human being. No other case involves another potential life with competing claims to rights.
The political ramifications were unambiguous: under this decision, many states under Grand Old Party control were poised to heavily restrict or fully ban abortion. Mississippi’s Gestational Age Act, which banned elective abortions after 15 weeks of gestation, was the case under question, and many GOP-controlled states committed to passing similar or more restrictive laws should Dobbs overturn Roe. After Dobbs was handed down and officially decided, 13 states’ “trigger-laws” went into effect. Trigger-laws are pieces of legislation passed in previous legislative sessions but designed to take effect once they are free from constitutional violations. So, once it becomes constitutional to regulate or ban abortions, as in the case of Dobbs, these laws become a part of a state’s statutes. Arkansas was one of the states with such a law passed in 2019, banning abortion except in cases that threaten the life of the mother.
Tensions escalated in the culture war when Politico published the leak of Justice Alito’s draft opinion in May 2022. Most noticeably, according to CNN, following the leak of the draft, an 8-foot, non-scalable fence was erected around the premises of the Supreme Court. Shortly thereafter, both pro-life and pro-choice demonstrators gathered around the grounds to voice their support or criticism of the opinion expressed in the draft.
On June 8, about five weeks after the draft opinion was released and two weeks before the decision, Nicholas Roske traveled from California to Justice Kavanaugh’s Maryland home where he surrendered to police, allegedly contemplating an attempt to assassinate the Justice and murder his family. While the White House did condemn the actions of Roske, Karine Jean-Pierre, White House Press Secretary, refused to condemn the illegal action of protesting or picketing outside of Supreme Court Justice’s homes following the alleged assassination plot.
Likewise, pro-choice extremists became increasingly violent following the leak and final decision. Threats of violence and death, firebombing and destruction of property were all directed toward pro-life pregnancy crisis centers and predominantly Catholic churches. The Religious Freedom Institute in District of Columbia released a report in early September 2022 detailing the number and nature of these pro-choice attacks against pro-life organizations. Since May, 68 pro-life pregnancy centers have been vandalized. According to this report, 39 Catholic churches or Catholic-affiliated services have been targeted and damaged by abortion-rights advocates, including the burning down of St. Colman Catholic Church in Shady Springs, Virginia by an arsonist the day after Dobbs was released.
Following the official decision announced on June 24, there were celebrations by pro-life citizens and government officials. Former Vice-President, Mike Pence, told Breitbart News, “Now that Roe v. Wade has been consigned to the ash heap of history, a new arena in the cause of life has emerged, and it is incumbent on all who cherish the sanctity of life to resolve that we will take the defense of the unborn and the support for women in crisis pregnancy centers to every state in America.” Republicans have attempted to galvanize their voters to elect pro-life GOP members in the upcoming November midterm election, as well as advocate for state-wide initiatives that restrict or ban abortions.
Democrats, likewise, sought to rally voter support. President Joe Biden used the opportunity to advocate for strong Democratic turnout in November in a speech following the overturning of Roe: “This fall, we must elect more senators and representatives who will codify a woman’s right to choose into federal law once again, elect more state leaders to protect this right at the local level.” Earlier in the speech, the President claimed that the majority of Supreme Court Justices adhere to an “extreme ideology.”
Pro-lifers celebrated the overturned of Roe and Casey. However, this case has merely returned the issue back to the states, the people and their representatives. Now, it is left to each side to attempt to appeal to their supporters and more ambivalent voters in order to get support for state legislation that reflects the will and convictions of those who turn out to vote.
Photo courtesy of Gayatri Malhotra