A divided Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion Friday, in a landmark opinion that reverses the decision in Roe v. Wade that first established that right nearly 50 years ago.
The decision from justices on the conservative wing of the court upheld a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, and signaled a change to decades of the Supreme Court’s approach to constitutional rights.
“The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives,” Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote for the majority.
