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A US SUPREME Court draft opinion leaked to the press last night suggests a majority of justices are ready to overturn the landmark Roe v Wade ruling, shredding nearly 50 years of constitutional protections on abortion rights.
A document labelled “Opinion of the Court” shows a majority of the court’s justices earlier this year threw support behind overturning the 1973 case that legalised abortion across the country.
According to the political news organisation Politico – who published the “leaked document” – the draft opinion shows the court voted to strike down the landmark case.
Here is how the original 1973 court case played out.
On 22 January 1973, the court decided that the constitutional right to privacy applied to abortion.
Roe was ‘Jane Roe’, a pseudonym for Norma McCorvey, a single mother pregnant for the third time, who wanted an abortion.
She sued the Dallas Attorney General, Henry Wade, over a Texas law that made it a crime to terminate a pregnancy except in cases of rape or incest, or when the mother’s life was in danger.
Filing a complaint alongside her was Texas doctor James Hallford, who argued the law’s medical provision was vague, and that he was unable to reliably determine which of his patients fell into the allowed category.
The ‘Does’, another couple, childless, also filed a companion complaint, saying that medical risks made it unsafe but not life-threatening for the wife to carry a pregnancy to term, and arguing they should be able to obtain a safe, legal abortion should she become pregnant.
The trifecta of complaints — from a woman who wanted an abortion, a doctor who wanted to perform them and a non-pregnant woman who wanted the right if the need arose — ultimately reached the nation’s top court.
The court heard arguments twice, and then waited until after Republican president Richard Nixon’s re-election, in November 1972.
‘Sensitive and emotional’ controversy
Only the following January did it offer its historic seven-to-two decision — overturning the Texas laws and setting a legal precedent that has had ramifications in all 50 states.
Justice Harry Blackmun, writing for the majority, said the court recognised the “sensitive and emotional nature of the abortion controversy, of the vigorous opposing views, even among physicians, and of the deep and seemingly absolute convictions that the subject inspires”.
But he argued that the “right of privacy… is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy”.
“A state criminal abortion statute of the current Texas type, that excepts from criminality only a lifesaving procedure on behalf of the mother, without regard to pregnancy stage and without recognition of the other interests involved, is violative of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,” the ruling read.
But the top court agreed with lower court rulings that the right to privacy with regard to pregnancy “is not absolute, and is subject to some limitations”.
“At some point, the state interests as to protection of health, medical standards and prenatal life become dominant,” Blackmun wrote.
The top court thus ruled partially against the doctor and the Does, but in favor of Jane Roe, who has since become a pro-life activist.
On the same day, the justices ruled in the separate Doe v Bolton case, which authorised each state to add restrictions to abortion rights for later-term pregnancies.
The constitutional right to abortion was later confirmed in a number of decisions, including Webster v Reproductive Health Services in 1989, Planned Parenthood v Casey in 1992 and Stenberg v Carhart in 2000.
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Spending more money we don’t have. Subsidise them, not completely free.
@Alan Byrne: Closer to 50 times more by the time all the admin etc is paid for
@Alan Byrne: much more accurate
They won’t be “free”. All taxpayers will ultimately pay for them multiple times over.
@Aurelio Na Fodhla: Exactly well said we the tax payer will as usual have to pay for everything as long as Fine waffle Finna failed and the cabbages are power
@Aurelio Na Fodhla: Exactly well said we the tax payer will as usual have to pay for everything as long as Fine waffle Finna failed are in power
@Aurelio Na Fodhla: oh least we for get the cabbages the money grabbing asholes
They should be provided for free to slim people also and not just the wider public…
@William Tallon: heeheehee, good one
@William Tallon: I hate myself that I laughed at that.
@William Tallon: If we all breathe in, I’m sure they’ll stretch a point.
Early in the pandemic, Portugal passed a law prohibiting price gouging on any measure relating to Covid and only a 15% mark up is allowed. Antigen tests cost less than €2 there and are widely available. Why would the Irish government subsidise private enterprise….why not force the providers to reduce their ridiculous prices instead.
@Paula Split: Because supporting cronies, big businesses, and their own get-rich-quick schemes is part of the long-standing culture in Leinster House. For example, the high percentage of landlords in the parties who’ve made housing shortages and excessive rents State policy.
@Fachtna Roe: nail on the head my friend. Amazing how the Irish people just keep voting in these same parties over and over despite this.
@Paula Split: your talking nonsense the test does not cost €2 Per shot in the eu.The tests are free in other EU Countries.Only in this country that the Tax payers have to once again must pay for a test it’s disgusting
@Official Irish CC: I never voted for FG nor the greens in my life and I never will.I did however was a finna failureSuppoter up until after the 1997 election when I opened my eyes thankfully I did I haven’t voted for FF since nor will I in the future
Make them free with the provision that once you take you you register it. If you go back for more you have to pay for them if not registered the results. All sorted and grand then like. People who waste them pay for them.
@This time its personable!: Need to allow for a margin of error. Certainly people seem to be clumsy about taking the first DIY test. In fairness if you’ve never tried the kits before, it’s probably easy to make a mistake at first. But they really aren’t affordable for anyone on a limited budget.
Nothing is free, not pcr tests, masks, hand gel, PUP or other Covid related things. We will all be paying for this for decades to come.
@Mary Conneely: exactly. Nothing is free. Someone has to get paid for, y’know, actually making stuff, despite what Mary and Alan say. There’s no magic money or magic product trees.
This is exactly like when there was no sanitizer no masks and one mask of cost you up to €2!. Now they are practically free. Once we cop on all antigen tests will be free and should be free. This will really encourage people to use them more often and if they find something not right they can go and take a PCR test , it’s a no-brainer!!!.
Antigen testing is free all over Germany. Why do we have to pay through the nose for everything in this country.
@John Fagan: I’m not sure if they have made them free again, but they started to charge for them
Yep free, and if they do hopefully the “procurement team” can negotiate a good rate for them as opposed to signing off on extortionate prices because its taxpayer money.
Yes they should be free, and to cover the costs the bill should be sent to the chinnese government.
@Allan Williams: I recommend researching ecovirology
In the UK they are free,7 in a box.NHS round of applause
@Gary Heslin: The NHS is not free, although there are no charges at the point of use. It’s paid for through taxes, so every taxpayer pays for the tests, whether they use them or not. It’s a more cost-effective way to provide healthcare than leaving patients subject to the avarices of private doctors and hospitals through insurance. We Irish should do the same.
If TDs and senators can get
Them free so should the public
@Pauline Cahill: Good point, the people who can easily afford the test kits are able to use them for free. And people watching every cent from week to week are not likely to be able to buy enough test packs.
@Pauline Cahill: you are right, and do you agree if they pay for them so do we? As this is the case, they do not get them for free!!
They need to be cheap and easily affordable. Otherwise their potential in the community will be squandered.
If we must pay then they must be affordable for absolutely everybody. If not then what’s the point?
Just make them more affordable by subsidising. What’s more important is inform the public how to use them and in what instances; to encourage their use; make sure the country has enough supply of them etc. Instead of saying you believe in antigen testing for the last year, having studies performed that back their use and then still do nothing about it but keep saying how you believe in them.
€6.50 – 8.50 per test. Outragious prices. Also affordable for many with the frequency they need to be done and the financial pressure people are now under.
@Sharon O’Doherty: Couldn’t agree more. If they’re helpful, provide them. People are already paying more for PPE and sanitiser etc. These are equally proactive and preventative. If they pick up more cases, and people are willing to take them, they’ll contain the spread better than nothing.
I don’t think there is a discussion here, it’s like most things in Ireland if payment is involved no one will use them…
@jp tobin: They will if they are affordable. Three tests are needed with the prices ranging from 6.50 to.9.euro in some places. They are too expensive for a lot of people. Not everyone has endless cash. 19.50 to 27 euro for tests or to put food on the table or put towards extortionate heating / fuel bills. I know what I would be choosing.
Why are we paying VAT on face masks and hand sanitizer in shops? Will the gov charge VAT on these tests too?
We aren’t. Those are all zero-rated for the duration, aren’t they? Shops can charge whatever but they aren’t getting VAT on sanitisers or masks.
My mistake, that link was for hospitals & nursing homes buying them in. IDK what the rate is to consumers, but I think it was 5% in 2020.
Denmark deaths per 1 million population 461
Ireland deaths per 1 million population 1073
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1104709/coronavirus-deaths-worldwide-per-million-inhabitants/
Denmark did 87 million tests for a population of about 6 million.
Ireland did about 6M tests.
Denmark has one of the lowest death rates from covid19.
€20 for five on German chains. €30 in one pharmacy and same brand €25 in another. We are being gouged again.
@Darren Priest: Buy them from Germany online, so..
Free to all in the Dáil- on their large safe salary’s. What about everyone else? Cost of everything flying up and people losing their jobs. Some other eu countries have provided them free of charge to all citizens. One box or 5 per week, per person.
To me this makes perfect sense.
It’s Robert Watt. What do you think his opinion will be?!
Just back from France and I bought 5 tests for €14.99 in a small pharmacy. What is going on with profiteering here?
We have loads of them. They rarely work
@kenny mcgrath: how can you tell?
Parotting a previous comment here but follow Portugals lead on a certain percentage mark up on Covid Related goods. €3 a pop would be acceptable to most I think.
Absolutely
Like we do on census night ,could we all sit down in the country and take an antigen test on the same night
What’s the difference between “free” and “for free”?
have your say