EDITORIAL | US abortion ruling proves democracy doesn’t protect rights, people do

The ruling reminds us to avoid complacency as active citizenry will go a long way to protect our human rights

30 June 2022 - 18:52

When the US Supreme Court ruled in favour of the universal right to access to abortion for women in 1973, nobody could have predicted that 49 years later that right would be taken away by the same court. A pregnant single woman, identified as Jane Roe, challenged the Texas law which criminalised abortion. At the time, Roe argued that she deserved access to a legal and safe abortion in the state that she lived in, performed by a competent and licensed physician. She argued that the fact that abortion was criminalised in her state infringed on her 14th amendment rights to due process and equal protection of laws...

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