The leaked Roe vs Wade draft opinion has been in the news for its possible impact on abortion rights, but it also paves the way for the erosion of gay rights in America. If constitutionally protected women’s rights that were recognised almost 50 years ago, and then re-affirmed almost 20 years later, could be revoked by a conservative supermajority in the U.S. Supreme Court, then similarly situated rights for gay and lesbian people — such as the right to marry someone of the same sex — are also susceptible to revocation.
A background
In December 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded oral arguments in Dobbs vs Jackson Women’s Health Organization, an ongoing case that looks at a 2018 Mississippi law (The Gestational Age Act) that bans most abortions after 15 weeks. Almost 50 years earlier, the same top court held in Roe vs Wade (1973) that it was unconstitutional for states to ban or restrict abortions before fetal viability. Later, Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania vs Casey (1992) reaffirmed Roe’s central holding on viability. Keeping Roe and Casey in mind, lower courts permanently enjoined the Mississippi law, but the case eventually moved up to the Supreme Court, with the following question: are all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions unconstitutional?
