Roe v Wade: Americans divided on Supreme Court’s ruling on abortion

There’s been mixed reaction to the US Supreme Court‘s decision on Friday overturning the landmark 1973 “Roe v Wade” decision that enshrined a woman’s right to an abortion.

Individual states can now permit or restrict the procedure themselves.

Roe v Wade overturned

The ruling by the conservative-dominated court has split the nation with liberals and feminists appalled by the decision, but it represented a victory of over 50 years of struggle against abortion by religious rights activists.

ALSO READ: US Supreme Court strikes down constitutional right to abortion

The decision largely mirrors a draft opinion that was the subject of an extraordinary leak in early May, sparking demonstrations around the country and tightened security at the court in downtown Washington.

The ruling will likely set into motion a cavalcade of new laws in roughly half of the 50 US states that will severely restrict or outright ban and criminalise abortions, forcing women to travel long distances to states that still permit the procedure.

Reactions

Here’s what prominent Americans have been saying about the Supreme court’s ruling:

Former US President Donald Trump’s secretary of state Mike Pompeo, an evangelical who recently backed a rival candidate in a key primary, credited Trump for the court’s decision.

Pompeo wrote on Twitter to Trump that “historians will write about you.”

“Americans, born and unborn, will benefit for decades,” he said.

‘Extreme ideology and a tragic error’

An angry President Joe Biden called on voters Friday to rise up over the Supreme Court’s “tragic error” in ending the constitutional right to abortion, warning that an “extreme ideology” is already targeting other rights.

“The court has done what it has never done before – expressly take away a constitutional right that is so fundamental to so many Americans,” Biden said in the White House.

“It’s a realisation of an extreme ideology and a tragic error by the Supreme Court in my view.”

The Democrat vowed to do everything he could to shield abortion access, but with the Supreme Court stripping away the federal right and handing power to often anti-abortion state legislatures, he acknowledged that his hands are largely tied.

Senate Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell described the Supreme Court’s ruling as a “historic victory for the Constitution and for the most vulnerable in our society.”

In a statement, McConnell said “[The decision is] courageous and correct.”

Attack on ‘essential freedoms’

Former US president Barack Obama, a Democrat, said Friday’s ruling was an attack on the “essential freedoms of millions of Americans”

“Today, the Supreme Court not only reversed nearly 50 years of precedent, it relegated the most intensely personal decision someone can make to the whims of politicians and ideologues -attacking the essential freedoms of millions of Americans,” Obama said in a statement.

Donald Trump, on the other hand, said the Supreme Court was following the US Constitution, “and giving rights back when they should have been given long ago … This brings everything back to the states where it has always belonged.”

‘A step backward’

Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton described the decision as “a step backward for women’s rights and human rights”.

“Most Americans believe the decision to have a child is one of the most sacred decisions there is, and that such decisions should remain between patients and their doctors.

“Today’s Supreme Court opinion will live in infamy as a step backward for women’s rights and human rights.”

Former US Vice President Mike Pence said in a statement: “Today, Life Won. By overturning Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court of the United States has given the American people a new beginning for life, and I commend the justices in the majority for having the courage of their convictions.

Compiled by Thapelo Lekabe. Additional reporting by AFP.

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