U.S. Supreme Court overturns landmark Roe v. Wade ruling on abortion rights

A draft version of the ruling indicating the court was likely to overturn Roe was leaked in May, igniting a political firestorm

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday took the dramatic step of overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that recognized a woman's constitutional right to an abortion and legalized it nationwide, handing a momentous victory to Republicans and religious conservatives who want to limit or ban the procedure.

The court, in a 6-3 ruling powered by its conservative majority, upheld a Republican-backed Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks. The justices held that the Roe v. Wade decision that allowed abortions performed before a fetus would be viable outside the womb — between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy — was wrongly decided because the U.S. Constitution makes no specific mention of abortion rights.

A draft version of the ruling indicating the court was likely to overturn Roe was leaked in May, igniting a political firestorm.

Mississippi's law had been blocked by lower courts as a violation of Supreme Court precedent on abortion rights.

Jackson Women's Health Organization, the only abortion clinic remaining in Mississippi, challenged the 2018 law and had the support of Democratic President Joe Biden's administration at the Supreme Court. The law allows abortions when there is a "medical emergency" or a "severe fetal abnormality" but does not have an exception for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.

A federal judge in 2018 struck the law down, citing the Roe precedent. The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2019 reached the same conclusion.

Roe v. Wade recognized that the right to personal privacy under the U.S. Constitution protects a woman's ability to terminate her pregnancy. The Supreme Court in a 1992 ruling called Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey reaffirmed abortion rights and prohibited laws imposing an "undue burden" on abortion access.