Why did the Supreme Court overturn the Roe v Wade ruling that decriminalized abortion?

Several states will protect access to abortion despite the Court's ruling 1:31

(CNN) --

The United States Supreme Court has overturned Roe v.

Wade on Friday, arguing that there is no longer a federal constitutional right to abortion in the country.

In the future, abortion rights will be determined by the states, unless Congress acts.

• US Supreme Court of Justice overturns the ruling Roe vs.

  Wade: Several states will protect access to abortion

Earlier in May, Politico had obtained what it called a draft majority opinion written by Judge Samuel Alito that would overturn Roe v.

Wade.

The 5-4 decision to overturn Roe v.

Wade, with the opinion written by Judge Samuel Alito, is "very similar to that draft opinion we saw leaked" in May, according to CNN's Jessica Schneider.

"This will have immediate effects here. By all accounts, about half of the states are expected to abolish abortion rights. We have about a half dozen states that have so-called 'trigger laws' that will ban abortion from coming into effective immediately or within the next 30 days or the next few months," he said.

• The US Supreme Court strikes down the federal right to abortion by overturning Roe v.

  Wade

Why did the United States Supreme Court make this decision?

This Supreme Court decision is the most important in decades and will transform the landscape of women's reproductive health in the United States.

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Here are a few key lines from what the majority opinion said in the Court:

• “We hold that Roe and Casey should be overturned.

  The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and that right is not implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which Roe and Casey advocates now primarily rely: the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

• “Roe was terribly wrong from the start.

  His reasoning was exceptionally weak and the decision has had detrimental consequences.

  And far from achieving a national agreement on the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have inflamed the debate and deepened the divide."

• “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the elected representatives of the people.”

• "The dissent argues that we have 'abandoned' stare decisis, post, at 30, but we have done no such thing, and it is the dissenting understanding of stare decisis that breaks with tradition."

  
  

  “We end this opinion where we started.

  Abortion presents a profound moral issue.

  The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion.

  Roe and Casey arrogated that authority to themselves.

  Now we overturn those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives.”

Several states will protect access to abortion despite the Court's ruling 1:31

What did those who did not disagree say?

• In a joint dissenting opinion, Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan slammed the majority, saying: “Sadly, for this Court, but more so, for the many millions of American women who today have lost a fundamental constitutional protection —we disagree."

• Basic facts about abortion in the US

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