LIHU‘E — The Supreme Court on Friday stripped away the nation’s constitutional protections for abortion that had stood for nearly a half century.
The decision by the court’s conservative majority overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, and is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.
Pregnant women considering abortions already had been dealing with a near-complete ban in Oklahoma and a prohibition after roughly six weeks in Texas. Clinics in at least five other states — Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri, Wisconsin and West Virginia — stopped performing abortions after Friday’s decision.
Many Hawai‘i politicians voiced opposition to the ruling Tuesday, with Hawai‘i U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono calling for codifying abortion rights into law with the Woman’s Health Protection Act.
“Today is a horrific day in America,” said Hirono. “The Supreme Court was confronted with a fundamental question: Who should have control over a woman’s body, a woman or a bunch of politicians. Today, the Supreme Court decided it should be a bunch of politicians. Their decision to overturn Roe will go down as one of the worst decisions in the history of the court.”
Hawai‘i has been a leader in the pro-choice movement, becoming the first state in the Union to decriminalize abortion in 1971, two years before the Roe V. Wade decision.
The Hawai‘i Revised Statute Section 453-16 currently protects a female’s right to choose or obtain an abortion for a nonviable fetus, or when it is necessary to protect the life or health of the mother.
Yet there are no abortion clinics on Kaua‘i, making access to the procedure difficult.
Kaua‘i Prosecuting Attorney Rebecca Like was one of the 83 elected prosecutors who signed a joint statement committing to refuse to prosecute those who seek, assist in or provide abortions.
“In more than half of other states, residents’ access to this medical procedure will be unavailable or very limited,” Like said. “Criminalizing abortion undermines public safety by damaging public trust in law enforcement and isolating vulnerable residents from medical and social services that they need.”
The YWCA and other groups organized a rally in front of the Historic County Building in Lihu‘e Friday.
“This decision immediately inflicts additional harm on victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking in the states with immediate bans on abortion without any exceptions,” said YWCA Directer Renaé Hamilton-Cambeilh. “Everyone should have the freedom and power to make personal decisions about their lives, families and futures.”
The ruling, unthinkable just a few years ago, was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court fortified by three appointees of former President Donald Trump.
Both sides predicted the fight over abortion would continue, in state capitals, in Washington and at the ballot box. Justice Clarence Thomas, part of Friday’s majority, urged colleagues to overturn other high-court rulings protecting same-sex marriage, gay sex and the use of contraceptives.
While President Joe Biden expressed dismay and pledged to fight to restore the rights, Trump praised the ruling, telling Fox News that it “will work out for everybody.”
The decision is expected to disproportionately affect minority women, who already face limited access to health care, according to statistics analyzed by The Associated Press.
It also puts the court at odds with a majority of Americans who favored preserving Roe, according to opinion polls.
Surveys conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and others have shown a majority in favor of abortion being legal in all or most circumstances. But many also support restrictions, especially later in pregnancy. Surveys consistently show that about 1 in 10 Americans want abortion to be illegal in all cases.
The ruling came more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the court was prepared to take this momentous step.
Alito, in the final opinion issued Friday, wrote that Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that reaffirmed the right to abortion, were wrong and had to be be overturned.
“We therefore hold that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives,” Alito wrote, in an opinion that was very similar to the leaked draft.
Joining Alito were Thomas and Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. The latter three justices are Trump appointees. Thomas first voted to overrule Roe 30 years ago.
Four justices would have left Roe and Casey in place.
The vote was 6-3 to uphold the Mississippi law, but Chief Justice John Roberts didn’t join his conservative colleagues in overturning Roe. He wrote that there was no need to overturn the broad precedents to rule in Mississippi’s favor.
Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — the diminished liberal wing of the court — were in dissent.
“With sorrow — for this court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection — we dissent,” they wrote, warning that abortion opponents now could pursue a nationwide ban “from the moment of conception and without exceptions for rape or incest.”
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Guthrie Scrimgeour, reporter, can be reached at 647-0329 or gscrimgeour@thegardenisland.com.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A new human life begins at the moment of Conception, ask God !
Before the abortion takes place, ask the new baby what they want? You may have to wait a few months, or until they can talk and understand what an abortion is.