sThe 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade concluded with a ruling which allowed women throughout the entire United States to have abortions until the third trimester of pregnancy.
In the 1992 case Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1973 ruling was updated to allow women to have abortions until fetal viability, which tends to occur in the second trimester.
Today, abortion still remains a hot topic and has divided many people into two camps: pro-life or pro-choice. Abortion is a complex issue because it delves into the rights and health of women versus the rights of an unborn child.
There’s also the issue of how much religion should interfere with government and health care. It isn’t an easy issue to settle. Once again, however, another ruling could be made about abortion by the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy will be officially retiring from the Court at the end of July. Kennedy sided with the majority on Planned Parenthood v. Casey. In this case, abortion rights were lessened but the ruling still retained a woman’s right to have an abortion.
Kennedy was a conservative judge, but was still considered to be a swing vote. With Kennedy gone, Trump will attempt to replace him with a much more conservative judge. This will certainly disrupt the balance of the Supreme Court and give conservatives a majority in all three branches of government.
States with strict abortion laws such as Louisiana, Arkansas, and Iowa are being challenged by Planned Parenthood, according to CNN. If one of these cases makes it to the Supreme Court, then the Court would not even need to overturn Roe v. Wade in order to pose a real threat to women’s health. The Court can allow abortion to be legal federally but also allow states to become even more strict regarding its use, therefore making it nearly impossible to get the procedure. This is very worrying for many reasons.
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