Supreme Court strikes down Roe v. Wade
Fox News' chief legal correspondent Shannon Bream provides details on the Supreme Court's ruling that reverses the long-standing precedent on abortion in America.
Friday, June 24 marks a historic human rights victory for unborn children and their mothers and a bright pro-life future for America.
Roe v. Wade has wreaked havoc on our nation and the rights of the most innocent in our society. Since 1973, over 63 million boys and girls meant for this world have had their lives violently taken because a handful of unelected justices — contrary to our Constitution and our founding principles — imposed by fiat an alleged "right" to abortion on demand up to birth nationwide.
By overturning Roe, the Supreme Court at last is returning the abortion issue to the people, to debate and decide for themselves through their elected representatives. It will allow them to act on advances in science and technology that let us see the undeniable humanity of unborn children, to hear their hearts beat and watch them suck their thumbs, make faces and even cry in real time, and that let doctors perform life-saving surgery on their youngest patients right in the womb. When the people understand the brutal reality of abortion, and they get to have their say, overwhelmingly we find that life wins.
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Americans are ready for this moment — ready to protect the lives of women and unborn children. We have signaled this readiness at the state level where every day Americans have urged their elected representatives to introduce 417 pro-life bills in 42 states and enact 15 new lifesaving laws and provisions.
But the work is just beginning. Now is the time for all Americans to let their voices be heard, and for every candidate in America to tell the people where he or she stands.
A robust debate will now unfold in every state and in Congress over how we ought to safeguard children and honor women. In the coming years, we will have the opportunity to save millions of lives by placing this issue front and center in the public square and educating fellow citizens. Federal as well as state lawmakers must commit to building consensus for the most ambitious protections possible.
They will find strong majority support already for greater protections. Two thirds of Americans (64%) — women even more than men — agree unborn children should be protected no later than 15 weeks, a point by which science shows they feel pain; another recent poll showed exactly half (50%) of Americans would protect the unborn after six weeks, when their hearts are already beating away. Such a move would be a step in the right direction, moving America more in line with the rest of the world in supporting compassionate limits on abortion.
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In stark contrast, Democratic Party leaders want to go even further than Roe and are calling for abortion on demand without limits to be permanently enshrined in federal law — a radical, out-of-touch position that would keep the U.S. on the list of a small handful of nations, including China and North Korea, that allow abortion on demand up until birth.
Outside the Supreme Court Thursday morning ahead of possible announcement on Dobbs v. Jackson. (Joshua Comins/Fox News)
As our legislative bodies act on the will of the people to protect the unborn, the pro-life movement stands ready to support women and families and those who serve them. This isn’t new. For decades, community heroes have labored on the front lines in thousands of pregnancy centers and maternity homes, offering countless material, medical and educational resources to empower women to choose life and thrive. Today these centers form a vast social safety net far outnumbering abortion businesses, serving millions of clients a year typically at no cost.
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Now is the time for innovation. Creative leaders like Mississippi’s legislature and Republican Gov. Tate Reeves came up with a first-of-its-kind tax credit benefiting more than 30 life-affirming centers in the state that provide care and practical support before and after birth. In addition, a growing number of state Alternatives to Abortion programs provide vital services, from pregnancy through early childhood. Justice in the law and mercy in our communities: those are the two wings on which our pro-life mission takes flight.
Members of the Supreme Court pose for a group photo on April 23, 2021. They are, seated from left, Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor, and standing from left, Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool, File)
For the past 50 years, Roe has disfigured this great nation, symbolizing the failure to live up to the strong commitments and ideals expressed in our founding documents and our noblest aspirations. The abortion industry has profited from ending the lives of our children and from the pain of countless mothers deceived to think abortion was the only way out of crisis.
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The Supreme Court’s decision rights an egregious wrong and brings us closer to Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America’s vision for the country — that one day, America will lead the world by example in upholding human rights, the first of which is life.
As we celebrate, let us not grow complacent, but rather use this moment as a call to greater action to serve and save. Life is winning — but we must continue fighting for it.
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