Roe V. Wade, the Landmark Supreme Court Decision Was Overturned on June 24, 2022

A leaked document from the Supreme Court confirmed what many reproductive right activists already feared: the Court plans to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling. “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the draft majority opinion leaked to Politico. “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.” This 1973 ruling was a watershed moment for women across the country, affirming that access to abortion was a right protected by the fourteenth amendment of the Constitution. This decision argued that woman's right to choose fell under her right to privacy. With that, abortion, was effectively legalized nationwide. By overturning this ruling, the court puts the power over women’s bodies in the hands of the states, many of which are set to outlaw abortion entirely or almost entirely. Texas, Oklahoma, and Ohio—to name a few—are set to ban abortion as early as six weeks (at which point many women are not even aware that they're pregnant). While the leaked document is a draft and it's possible that one or more justices could change his or her mind in the intervening time, it seems unlikely. When and if Roe is overturned, abortion will no longer be protected by the Constitution.