The Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade Friday in a 6-3 vote, overturning the nearly 50-year-old right to abortion.
The Court ruled that the Constitution does not provide the right to have an abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, effectively overruling Roe v. Wade. The court upheld a Mississippi law that does not allow abortion after 15 weeks of conception. The right to abortion is now turned back to the states.
Nearly half of U.S. states are poised to ban all or most abortions, reported CNBC.
Of the four U.S. states that surround Minnesota – North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Iowa – all are on track to ban abortions. North and South Dakota had trigger laws in place to outlaw abortion in the case Roe was overturned, Wisconsin had a law put in place in 1849 predating Roe that bans abortion, which is now effective again, and Iowa already banned abortion after six weeks of conception.
Abortion will still be a protected right in Minnesota under Doe v. Gomez, a 1995 case that ruled abortion is protected under the state constitution.
The court also ruled in Friday’s decision to overrule Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), a case that affirmed Roe and established the undue burden standard for abortions, meaning that the legislature cannot make a law too restrictive on someone’s fundamental rights.
Before it’s overturn, the decision in Casey established that any abortion law is invalid, “if its purpose or effect is to place a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion before the feturs attains viability.”
University of Minnesota Students for a Democratic Society is holding a march for reproductive rights at 6 p.m. Friday starting at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.
“The Supreme Court’s decision is a blatant violation of Minnesotans’ right to make their own reproductive health decisions,” Gov. Tim Walz said in a statement Friday. “But let me say it again: There will never be a ban on abortion in Minnesota under my watch.”
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the year of a pre-Roe abortion law in Wisconsin.
