James Doogue

The Supreme Court highlighted that abortion is NOT covered by the constitution, and the Supreme Court cannot fill this gap by acting like a legislature as was done in two previous cases brought to the Supreme Court, 'Roe' and 'Casey'

Therefore the 6-3 verdict held: 'The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion' Consequently, the previous Roe and Casey cases are overruled and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives.'

This simply means that if States don't already have legislation covering the access to or restrictions on abortion, they need to get some in place.

I don't think there are any US states which have no regulations regarding abortion. What many 'pro-choice' activists are upset about, is that a number of US states have restrictive access to abortion.

US Pro-life and Pro-choice activists need to be lobbying their state politicians, not Supreme Court Justices.

Incidentally Australia is in a similar situation to the US. Access to abortion is not regulated by our Federal Government, it is regulated by individual States and Territories.

Note: 'Roe' and 'Casey' are two previous SCOTUS decisions, Roe v. Wade, 410 U. S. 113, and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa.
v. Casey, 505 U. S. 833.

You can download and read the 200+ page opinion published by the Supreme court at the link here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf

The summary of the case leading to opinion is covered on page 1.

DOBBS, STATE HEALTH OFFICER OF THE MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, ET AL. v. JACKSON WOMEN’S HEALTH ORGANIZATION ET AL.

CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT No. 19–1392. Argued December 1, 2021—Decided June 24, 2022

Mississippi’s Gestational Age Act provides that "[e]xcept in a medical
emergency or in the case of a severe fetal abnormality, a person shall
not intentionally or knowingly perform . . . or induce an abortion of an
unborn human being if the probable gestational age of the unborn hu-
man being has been determined to be greater than fifteen (15) weeks.”
Miss. Code Ann. §41–41–191.

Respondents—Jackson Women’s Health Organization, an abortion clinic, and one of its doctors—challenged the Act in Federal District Court, alleging that it violated this Court’s precedents establishing a constitutional right to abortion, in particular Roe v. Wade, 410 U. S. 113, and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey, 505 U. S. 833. The District Court granted summary judgment in favor of respondents and permanently enjoined enforcement of the Act, reasoning that Mississippi’s 15-week restriction on abortion violates this Court’s cases forbidding States to ban abortion pre-viability. The Fifth Circuit affirmed. Before this Court, petitioners defend the Act on the grounds that Roe and Casey were wrongly decided and that the Act is constitutional because it satisfies rational-basis review.

PS: If the Democrats were really interested in universal abortion rights in the US, they could have Codified Roe vs Wade in federal legislation while they have control of the White House, Senate and Congress.

Tim adds:

I think this has sweeping ramifications in matters of how the Court views its role. This ruling seems to validate the concept of Federalism, and says that abortion is something outside the scope of it's authority. While the ruling itself denied this sets a precedent for restraining court involvement in other issues it in fact does that very thing.

I would add that I think this ruling, from my reading of it anyway, makes a legislative effort at the Federal level moot. If Congress were to pass a law making abortion legal everywhere it would be overstepping its bounds as surely as did the Court. I think based on this SCOTUS would have to find such a law unconstitutional. They have pretty much states this is a state matter. I think this may require a Constitutional Amendment to allow a national abortion law.

Maybe I'm wrong, but it certainly would appear to be the case to me.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 11:15 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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