Supreme Court Overturning of Roe v. Wade Questioned By Federal Judge

A federal judge may have found a loophole in order to give back a women’s rights to abortion.

CNBC reported that a court order handed down by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington district court during the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization court case, raised a point that the right to abortion may be protected under the Constitution’s 13th Amendment, the same amendment that abolished slavery.

The judge told prosecutors and defense lawyers that files should be briefed no later than next month on whether the Supreme Court’s ruling addresses only the issue of whether abortion is not protected by the 14th Amendment, and if any other provision in the Constitution may “confer a right to abortion.”

“It is entirely possible that the Court might have held in Dobbs that some other provision of the Constitution provided a right to access reproductive services had that issue been raised,” Kollar-Kotelly wrote, according to Politico. “However, it was not raised.”

Her order could be crucial in changes to the federal legal challenges on the grounds of the 13th Amendment to state laws that have restricted access to abortion in certain states.

The controversial right to an abortion was mandated back in 1973 during the landmark Supreme Court hearing of Roe vs. Wade. It was overturned 50 years later in June 2022. According to CNBC, the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution protects several rights, including citizenship rights and a prohibition against the government depriving “any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”

Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization regards 10 defendants who allegedly blocked access to an abortion clinic in Washington, D.C. Politico reported that one of the defendants, Lauren Handy, testified that the charge no longer mattered since the Dobbs decision took Congress out of the business of making laws related to abortion access.