The landmark Roe v. Wade abortion case was overturned when the U.S. Supreme Court released a historic ruling Friday.
The majority opinion was penned by Justice Samuel Alito, with Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett joining. Chief Justice Roberts concurs with the ruling, but also said he would have upheld the Mississippi law at the center of this case without necessarily overturning Roe.
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President Joe Biden said he would try to preserve abortion access and declared, “This is not over.” He said during his address “the court has done what it’s never done before — expressly taking away a constitutional right that is so fundamental to so many Americans.”
Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning Roe, that does not mean that abortion is now illegal throughout the U.S. The ruling kicks the decision back down to the states, allowing each one to decide their own laws surrounding abortion, and potentially other reproductive rights.
Twenty-two states, largely in the South and Midwest, already had total or near-total bans and 13 other states had trigger laws that immediately ban abortion with Roe v. Wade overturned, according to the Associated Press.
View the 213-page opinion below: