Removal of Federal Guarantees of the Right to Abortion in the US: Is America on the Verge of a Constitutional Revolution?

Abstract

The article focuses on the recent cancellation of Roe v. Wade (1973), one of the most significant decisions of the US Supreme Court in terms of the formation of the constitutional rights and freedoms of a person and a citizen, following the US Supreme Court decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022). This decision of Roe enshrined guarantees of the right to abortion at the federal constitutional level and for almost half a century it was the topic of heated legal, political, and public discussions. The study identified organizational and political prerequisites and constitutional and legal grounds for the annulment of the decision in Roe. It is noted that this event became possible, among other things, due to changes in the composition of the US Supreme Court during the presidency of D. Trump, as a result of which a stable conservative majority formed in the court, inclined to interpret the US Constitution on the basis of ideas of originalism. In particular, the overturning of Roe is justified by a much narrower interpretation of the "due process clause" of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution. It is suggested that a number of other significant decisions of the US Supreme Court concerning constitutional rights can be revised based on this new approach.