PITTSBURGH — The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Friday to overturn Roe v. Wade could do lasting damage to the institution’s legacy as it signals a changing approach to precedent, according to legal experts.
In ruling that there is no constitutional basis for legal abortions, the court went back on nearly 50 years of precedent and made a decision that hits “at the core of people’s personal lives,” said Dara E. Purvis, a law professor at Penn State University.
The 6-3 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization concluded that the right to abortion cannot be found in the Constitution, thus overturning Roe v. Wade — the 1973 case legalizing abortion nationally — and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a 1992 ruling that created the standards by which the abortion right was legally analyzed.
