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.
EXCLUSIVE: Former President Donald Trump praised the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade Friday, telling Fox News that the ruling "will work out for everybody."
"This is following the Constitution, and giving rights back when they should have been given long ago," Trump told Fox News.
LIVE UPDATES: SUPREME COURT OVERTURNS ROE V. WADE IN LANDMARK OPINION
When asked if he had a message for any of his supporters who may be pro-choice, Trump told Fox News: "I think, in the end, this is something that will work out for everybody."
"This brings everything back to the states where it has always belonged," Trump said.
When asked whether he feels he played a role in the reversal of Roe v. Wade, after having appointed three conservative justices to the high court, the former president told Fox News: "God made the decision."
Former President Donald Trump (Getty Images)
Trump, during his presidency, appointed conservative Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
With those appointments, the high court became majority conservative, with Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Clarence Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett.
SUPREME COURT OVERTURNS ROE V. WADE IN LANDMARK OPINION
Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elana Kagan, all appointed by Democrats, dissented the majority opinion Friday to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The ruling came in the court's opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which centered on a Mississippi law that banned abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The Republican-led state of Mississippi asked the Supreme Court to strike down a lower court ruling that stopped the 15-week abortion ban from taking place.
"We end this opinion where we began. Abortion presents a profound moral question. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives," Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the court's opinion.
Alito's opinion began with an exploration and criticism of Roe v. Wade and its holding that while states have "a legitimate interest in protecting ‘potential life,'' this interest was not strong enough to prohibit abortions before the time of fetal viability, understood to be at about 23 weeks into pregnancy.
"The Court did not explain the basis for this line, and even abortion supporters have found it hard to defend Roe’s reasoning," Alito wrote.
Supreme court abortion decision. (Joshua Comins/Fox News)
Breyer, Kagan and Sotomayor dissented, writing that Roe and Casey "understood the difficulty and divisiveness of the abortion issue," and by overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, a woman "has no rights to speak of."
"The Court knew that Americans hold profoundly different views about the 'moral[ity]' of 'terminating a pregnancy, even in its earliest stage,'" they wrote. "And the Court recognized that 'the State has legitimate interests from the outset of the pregnancy in protecting' the 'life of the fetus that may become a child.'"
MORE THAN 2 DOZEN STATES TO RESTRICT ABORTIONS AFTER ROE V. WADE OVERTURNED
"So the Court struck a balance, as it often does when values and goals compete," they wrote. "It held that the State could prohibit abortions after fetal viability, so long as the ban contained exceptions to safeguard a woman’s life or health."
Pro life and pro choice protesters waiting to hear the Supreme Court decision. (Joshua Comins/Fox News)
"Today, the Court discards that balance," they wrote. "It says that from the very moment of fertilization, a woman has no rights to speak of."
"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.
Fox News' Ronn Blitzer and Kelly Laco contributed to this report.
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