After the Supreme Court overturned Roe VS. Wade, lots of questions remain about what actually happened.
Across the country, lawyers and other legal minds are piecing together a future after this historic event.
“The United States Supreme Court determined by a 5-4 majority, 5 justices signed on, that Roe was ‘egregiously wrong when it was decided,’” said Terry J Price, the Executive Director and Graduate Instructor for the University of Washington Law.
The 14th Amendment says no state should violate privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.
“Previously, the court held that the 14th Amendment guaranteed a right for women to choose to terminate a pregnancy before viability,” said Jim Oleske, a Professor of Law at Lewis and Clark University.
That means abortions before 23 weeks of pregnancy.
Now, it’s up to the states to decide.
“Oregon allows it, many states do not,” said John Hummel, the Deschutes County District Attorney.
Legally nothing will change in Oregon, but it will practically, with many women from out of state wanting abortions and traveling where the procedure is legal, like Central Oregon.
“I think it would be more difficult in Oregon for women to obtain an abortion because we can bet now that Oregon is the abortion provider for women in Oregon, but it will also be the abortion provider for women in Idaho,” Hummel said.
When the Supreme Court decision was made, the reasoning relied on historic beliefs, with justice Clarence Thomas suggesting other Supreme Court rulings be overturned based on the intentions of the constitution when it was written in 1787.
“How much do we rely on our law, our constitution, as a dead document?” Price said “As a document that doesn’t change.”
That would include decisions on providing contraceptives, legalizing same sex marriage, same sex intercourse, and interracial marriage.
“So maybe right now, there aren’t 5 votes to make that decision but the reasoning of the court taken to its logical conclusion would seem to indicate all those decisions were wrong,” Oleske said.
