On June 24, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned Roe v. Wade, a monumental 1973 case that resulted in women being able to make choices about their bodies. The case was brought to the Supreme Court because, according to the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School, “a single pregnant woman (Roe)” obtained “a class action challenging the constitutionality of the Texas criminal abortion laws.” The court eventually decided after years of the single woman going from court to court – the decision being that neither the courts nor the government have a say in women making decisions in their own private lives. Also, no opinions nor view of judges should influence women’s final decisions. 

These beliefs contrast with the decision made by the 2022 Supreme Court. Justice Samuel Alito released a draft opinion a few months before the official decision was made in June 2022. The draft opinion stated that Roe was “egregiously wrong from the start” and that it was “an abuse of judicial authority.” The court decided on June 24, with five yay and four nays. This decision overturned nearly fifty years of precedent and left millions of women without reproductive rights. 

The 1973 court concluded they made their decision because of a citizen’s -whether man or woman – right to privacy. This 2022 decision basically disregards that right for women in the United States. It puts some in the position to decide if they want to be a mom and risk financial issues or go to jail, for others risk their lives to carry the child to term. For many choosing to abort is not the first choice, it is a long thought about, traumatic and terrifying decision. For many, it is a last resort. 

Generations of women in the future will feel the repercussions of the Government’s choice. This choice will cause many women who cannot afford to have a child to sacrifice everything to care for another human being or cause them to give the baby up which will ultimately result in an increased build-up in the country’s foster care system. It will also cause more deaths than save lives. The women that are lost will have left behind family and possibly other children that will forever have the space left behind by the person they lost. Damage has been done to the future by the Supreme Court, pushing us as women back into the past.