New Delhi: President Joe Biden pledged to do everything his administration can to protect abortion rights after US Supreme Court in a big decision abolished the Right to Abortion after nearly fifty years. Under this law, American women had the right to make their own decision whether to have an abortion or not. However, the apex court has now overturned a nearly 50-year-old landmark 1973 "Roe v Wade" ruling that guaranteed a woman's right to an abortion, saying that individual states could now allow or restrict the procedure themselves.
“It just stuns me,” US President Joe Biden said at one point, adding that poor women would be hit the hardest by the decision, ANI reported. “This is a sad day for the country in my view" Biden said adding that the "fight is over".
President Biden called on Congress to restore abortion protections into law & pointed to November midterm elections, saying, “this fall, Roe is on the ballot”. He urged protests to be conducted peacefully & said violence is never acceptable. “This decision must not be the final word,” he said as per ANI.
The court's decision came in the decisive case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, in which Mississippi's last abortion clinic opposed the state's efforts to ban abortion after 15 weeks and reverse Row in the process.
Following the SC verdict, half of the US states are expected to introduce new restrictions or bans on abortions.
The Court held that the Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision. Reversing the 1973 ruling would again allow individual US states to ban abortions. At least 26 states are expected to do so at the earliest.