The U.S. Supreme Court has recognised that each U.S. state has the freedom to determine its own laws on abortion, including protections for unborn life from its earliest stages, in today’s judgement in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

This marks a dramatic shift away from the United States’ previous abortion framework established by the Court in the now infamous Roe v. Wade case of 1973. In that ruling, the Court overturned pro-life laws in all fifty states and instead imposed an extreme law on the whole nation, which positioned the U.S. among only six countries in the world, including China and North Korea, permitting abortion on demand throughout all nine months of pregnancy.

At issue in this present case was the state of Mississippi’s law protecting life by limiting abortion on demand after 15 weeks gestation.

By a 6-3 ruling, the law was held to be constitutional, despite contravening aspects of the Court’s previous Roe v Wade ruling. However, by a 5-4 majority, in an opinion authored by Justice Samuel Alito, the Court ruled that all of the Roe v Wade jurisprudence should be overturned, paving the way for each state to make up its own laws on the matter as each one sees fit.