The Supreme Court has overruled Roe v Wade. Why?
As Justice Alto says in the majority decision:
“Abortion presents a profound moral issue on which Americans hold sharply conflicting views. Some believe fervently that a human person comes into being at conception and that abortion ends an innocent life. Others feel just as strongly that any regulation of abortion invades a woman’s right to control her own body and prevents women from achieving full equality. Still others in a third group think that abortion should be allowed under some but not all circumstances, and those within this group hold a variety of views about the particular restrictions that should be imposed.”
So one paragraph into it, I am in agreement. It is a complicated issue. So how should we decide? But it goes downhill from there. The disagreement begins.
On one hand, we could look into the 1973 case (Roe vs Wade) and the decisions after that but that would not get us where some religions would like us to go.
The Roe decision found a state abortion law unconstitutional as it impinged on a fundamental privacy right as found in the First, Fourth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments. (see https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/blog/landmark-cases-roe-v-wade)
So it seems to me that the Supreme Court overturned Roe based on a lack of mention in the Constitution, some 19th century state laws, and even older old English common law.
If Justice Alito wants you to be governed by the laws of the 17th century, you should take a close look at that century. Is that when you want to live?
I don’t think the lack of mention in the Constitution is important. The founders did not mention all rights and acknowledged that with the Ninth Amendment.
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
And the implications of overturning Roe go far beyond abortion. Justice Thomas has already indicated that the same logic could lead to an overturn of cases establishing rights to contraception, same-sex consensual relations and same-sex marriage. If there is no right to privacy that Americans can depend on, who knows what rights will be questioned.
We live in interesting and frightening times.