The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday, holding that there is no longer a federal constitutional right to an abortion.
The opinion is the most consequential Supreme Court decision in decades and will transform the landscape of women's reproductive health in America.
Going forward, abortion rights will be determined by states, unless Congress acts. Already, nearly half of the states have or will pass laws that ban abortion while others have enacted strict measures regulating the procedure.
"Roe was egregiously wrong from the start," Justice Samuel Alito wrote in his majority opinion. "Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division."
The vote was 5-3-1. In a joint dissenting opinion, Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan heavily criticized the majority, closing: "With sorrow -- for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection -- we dissent."
The opinion represents the culmination of a decades-long effort on the part of critics of abortion seeking to return more power to the states. It was made possible by a solid six-member conservative majority -- including three of Donald Trump's nominees.
Now the country begins down the road to a federal abortion ban, and worse, overturning Griswold v Connecticut. Along this road will be thousands, tens of thousands, of women dying yearly.
If you personally don't care about access to safe abortions, you already know and care about somebody whose life will be affected by this, right now, today. Texas is already dancing on graves over this.
They won't stop with this, unless we stop them in the future. It's not the end of the battle. It's the start of the war.
Vote like your country depends on it.
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