The U.S. Supreme Court ruling Friday, which overturns Roe v Wade, allows states to immediately adopt the most draconian prohibitions, forbidding abortions even in cases of rape, incest, or where the mother is endangered, and women will have no federal recourse at all, New Jersey's former attorney general says.
On Friday, for the first time in our history, more than half of Americans were stripped of a right that had been deemed fundamental for generations. Whatever else you conclude about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the stark reality for women is simple: their most intimate decisions about reproductive health are no longer even partially shielded from governmental intrusion by a fundamental constitutional right that has offered a modicum of protection for 50 years.
What would it take, it is fair to wonder, for the Court to be willing to strip 167.5 million Americans of a fundamental right that has been recognized since 1973? Roe v. Wade, the decision recognizing such a right, must have ranked, in the Court’s view, with the worst in American history, with Dred Scott or Plessy v. Ferguson.
Dobbs is radical stuff indeed, but one wouldn’t have expected such a reversal from the way the justices answered questions about the issue during their confirmation hearings. Justice Brett Kavanaugh came close to describing Roe as settled law, stating: “It’s not as if it’s a run-of-the-mill case that was decided once and never reconsidered, but Casey reconsidered it … and decided to reaffirm it. That makes Casey a precedent on precedent.”
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