Roe overturned: What happens now? Yahoo News Explains
The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that made abortion legal nationwide. In May, a leaked draft opinion in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization regarding a Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks signaled that the court would strike down nearly 50 years of legal precedent upholding legal abortion. With a post-Roe America now becoming reality, Yahoo News explains what comes next as abortion laws return to the states.
Video Transcript
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- The Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that made abortion legal nationwide. With the landscape of a post-Roe America now coming into view, here's what you should know. So what happens to abortion now? Well, it doesn't go away, but access will vary greatly, depending on where you live.
22 states have laws on the books, either pre or post-Roe, that could immediately restrict nearly all abortions. 12 of these are due to so-called trigger laws, or laws that have passed in anticipation of Roe being overturned. These trigger laws vary from state to state, but effectively criminalize the procedure in all, but a few select cases.
Another four states, Florida, Indiana, Nebraska, and Montana, have pending legislation that suggests they may also move to ban abortions, should Roe be overturned. On the flip side, 16 states, including much of the Northeast, West Coast, as well as the District of Columbia, have laws that explicitly protect the right to abortion. Some companies have offered additional benefits to cover travel for abortion procedures for employees who live in states with restrictions and their families.
However, for the vast majority of women seeking abortions in those states, especially those from lower-income families, their options will be severely limited. How did this happen? In the decade since Roe v. Wade, numerous attempts to overturn the ruling have made their way up to the Supreme Court. Most famously, Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992 ended in a 5-4 decision to uphold Roe, but did allow states to impose restrictions on abortion, so long as they did not result in a, quote, "undue burden."
And that's how abortion ended up in front of the Supreme Court again. This latest case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, is about a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks. And since May, we've known that the ruling on Dobbs would ultimately strike down Roe.
- The political landscape rumbling loudly tonight after the explosive leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion--
- The US Supreme Court has, in fact, voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.
- What's next? People are mad. And efforts to reverse course are not likely to subside any time soon. We could see efforts in Congress to legalize abortion at the federal level. However, as we saw in May in reaction to the leaked opinion, it's unlikely that these efforts would succeed.
