The U.S. Supreme Court has voted to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade case in its decision to uphold Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, according to its ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization released Friday.
“This is a devastating ruling that will have life-threatening impacts,” said ACLU of Alabama Executive DirectorJaTaune Bosby. “Alabama lawmakers have been committed to stripping away healthcare for women and all pregnant people long before Roe was decided.”
Bosby said the ACLU of Alabama will continue its lawsuit to reinstate access to abortion.
“Today is a giant step forward for our country as, after decades, Roe is finally overturned,” said Republican Gov. Kay Ivey in a media release. “Folks, after almost 50 years of standing up for unborn babies, our prayers have been answered.”
Republican U.S. Senator Richard Shelby said Friday’s decision upholds the Constitution.
“It is our moral and ethical duty to protect the dignity of human life, particularly when it comes to the unborn,” Shelby said.
Other state Republican lawmakers are also applauding the decision.
“As a Christian, I believe life begins at conception, and that’s why I signed a ‘friend of the court’ brief in support of this law … I hope we don’t let this passion stop here, and we continue to discuss how we can protect the unborn and help vulnerable mothers,” said Republican U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville.
Members of the Alabama Democratic Party disagreed, saying the Supreme Court turned back the clock back decades.
“Republican politicians will claim this is a win for “life” in a state with high infant mortality rates, a Black maternal mortality crisis, and countless other public health crises,” the party wrote in a media release. “They refuse to expand Medicaid, providing free lifesaving healthcare access to Alabama families – or do anything else that actually sanctifies life for Alabamians.”
Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the SPLC Action Fund, agreed.
“There have been significant moments in the Supreme Court’s history when it has issued shameful decisions that deny equal protection under the law to an entire group of people, and today is one of those days,” Huang said in a media release.
Amy Kennedy, Vice President of External Affairs at Planned Parenthood Southeast, said the ruling launched the nation “into chaos.”
“Let me be clear: We will not back down. No judge, no politician, no ban should ever block your personal medical decisions or set the course for someone’s health and life,” Kennedy wrote in a media release.
It’s unclear exactly what state law on abortion access in Alabama will look like in the short term.
In May 2019, Ivey signed a bill into law that banned nearly all abortions at any stage of a pregnancy, unless a woman’s life is threatened or there is a lethal fetal anomaly. The ban, however, was blocked by a federal judge. But state lawmakers have said they’ll move quickly to challenge that judge’s ban.
Currently, Alabama does not allow abortion past the 20th week of gestation unless a doctor has determined either that the fetus is unviable or that carrying the fetus to term would cause death or severe and irreversible impairment to the woman.
The state also has a pre-Roe ban on abortion that was never repealed. State lawmakers have also passed an amendment to the state constitution that recognizes the rights of the unborn. Some believe this amendment could open the door to outlaw abortion completely now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned.
There are three clinics that perform abortions in Alabama. The state could now seek to enforce its 2019 law banning nearly all abortions, and force the state’s clinics to stop performing abortions.
The Gulf States Newsroom’s Orlando Flores contributed to this story.
