If abortion rights go, so could gay marriage

The Supreme Court might just overturn 50 years of precedent. If they can end Roe, they can end anything.

Pro-choice and anti-abortion demonstrators outside the Supreme Court in 1989, Washington DC
Photo: Lorie Shaull – Wikimedia Commons

The news this past week was largely dominated by one big political story: Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a case which was just argued in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. The outcome, which we’ll know by June next year, could determine whether or not the right to an abortion, which was originally secured by the Supreme Court in their ruling on Roe v. Wade back in 1973, could be overturned after almost 50 years of protecting people’s rights and being used as precedent.

The word precedent is one that has been thrown around a lot during the coverage of Dobbs. Precedent, defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “an earlier event or action that is regarded as an example or guide to be considered in subsequent similar circumstances,” has an important role in the judicial system because it ensures that judges make consistent decisions and usually don’t make rulings that are incompatible or confusing with previous ones.

Related: Jen Psaki crushed male conservative journalist who wanted to debate abortion with her

It was largely assumed by many for decades that precedent, in this instance the Supreme Court ruling in Roe, would mean that abortion rights would be protected from future attempts to overturn them.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, during his 2018 Senate confirmation hearings after being nominated by Donald Trump, said that precedent should only be ignored under “rare” circumstances, which led to moderates like Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) voting to confirm him to the Supreme Court.

Well now it appears Justice Kavanaugh, along with four of his Supreme Court colleagues, are prepared to form an anti-choice majority that would overturn half a century of precedent and allow Mississippi’s abortion ban to go into effect, which would mean the end of the national right to an abortion in America.

This has gigantic political, legal, and personal implications the LGBTQ community…

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