Can SCOTUS ruling on Roe v Wade be overturned? POTUS could intervene, but Senate may bar path
In a historic and controversial but largely expected turn of events, the US Supreme Court has overturned Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 law that made abortion legal in the country. The apex court announced the 6-3 decision on June 24 as Justice Samuel Alito wrote, “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely — the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
Alito added, “That provision has been held to guarantee some rights that are not mentioned in the Constitution, but any such right must be ‘deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition’ and ’implicit in the concept of ordered liberty. It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
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But not all judges of the Supreme court were part of this judgment as three out of nine justices – Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan – slammed the decision, “The majority would allow States to ban abortion from conception onward because it does not think forced childbirth at all implicates a woman’s rights to equality and freedom. A State can force her to bring a pregnancy to term, even at the steepest personal and familial costs.”
Can POTUS do anything after the ruling?
“The most effective protection against state abortion bans is a federal law, which would precede the states,” a Guardian report stated. But to make that law, a 60-vote majority in the Senate is mandatory. And as per a USA Today report, currently, the Senate members are divided equally on this matter.
Earlier, former White House press secretary Jen Psaki had said while referring to the March Senate vote, “I think it's important to note that there has been a vote on this. It failed. It did not have even 50 votes, which means even if the filibuster were overturned, there would have not been enough votes to get this passed.”
