The US Supreme Court on Friday struck down Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right to abortion nearly 50 years after it was established, and leaving numerous states free to entirely ban abortions.
The Court voted 6-3 to strike down the landmark 1973 decision as well as the 1992 follow-up Planned Parenthood v. Casey, with all of the conservative justices joining the majority. Justice Samuel Alito, the author of the majority opinion, said the original Roe decision was “egregiously wrong” and compared it to the infamous 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson, which established the “separate but equal” doctrine underpinning Jim Crow.
