June 25 Roe v. Wade news

By Adrienne Vogt and Joe Ruiz, CNN

Updated 10:21 p.m. ET, June 25, 2022
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1:17 p.m. ET, June 25, 2022

Here's how protests against the SCOTUS ruling unfolded overnight

From CNN's Melissa Alonso

Police stand along the secure perimeter of the U.S. Supreme Court building as protests occur in reaction to the Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade on Friday.
Police stand along the secure perimeter of the U.S. Supreme Court building as protests occur in reaction to the Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade on Friday. (Getty Images)

While protests on Friday and overnight against the Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade were largely peaceful, law enforcement used tear gas on a crowd in Arizona and there were some arrests in New York.   

In Arizona, tear gas was used to disperse a crowd protesting the Supreme Court ruling in front of the state capitol late Friday, authorities said. 

"Troopers deployed tear gas after a crowd of protesters repeatedly pounded on the glass doors of the State Senate Building," Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesperson Bart Graves told CNN. 

"The crowd moved across the street to the Wesley Bolin Plaza where tear gas was deployed after a monument was vandalized," he said. 

Arizona State Rep. Sarah Liguori tweeted from inside the building, "while working inside we were interrupted by the sound of bangs and smell of tear gas. Protestors cleared from the Capitol." 

Arizona State Rep. Justin Wilmeth also tweeted late Friday, writing: "We are still at work finishing a couple of policy items, including a big water bill. We’ve had protestors here for a few hours now. As I heard it, some either banged on Senate windows or broke them and then DPS launched smoke bombs to disperse the crowds. Pure chaos for a bit." 

Wilmeth shared a photo of a "palm tree apparently on fire after the 'mostly peaceful' protests at the Capitol tonight." 

In New York, at least 20 people were "taken into custody with charges pending," after demonstrators marched through New York City streets in protest of the Supreme Court’s decision, according to police.

New York Police Department officers apprehended the individuals "within the vicinity of Bryant Park, West 42 Street and 6th Avenue," a NYPD spokesperson told CNN Saturday morning. No further details were provided on the arrests.

In Los Angeles, abortion rights supporters in Los Angeles marched on the 110 Freeway and stopped traffic as they protested the Supreme Court decision on Friday.

In Washington, DC, hundreds of people on both sides of the issue gathered outside the Supreme Court on Friday to react to the ruling. One abortion rights advocate climbed to the top of the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge on Friday. Guido Reichstadter posted videos and photos of himself on social media from the top of the bridge where he unfurled a large green banner. Green is recognized as a symbol of abortion rights. "I climbed up the top of the Frederick Douglas Memorial bridge this morning because the Supreme Court is engaged in an unconstitutional treasonous attack on the rights of women in this country," Reichstadter said in a TikTok video he posted from the top of the bridge. 

Additional protests are expected this weekend.

CNN's Camila Bernal, Sarah Moon and Zach Reed contributed to this post.

2:56 p.m. ET, June 25, 2022

Here are the answers to your questions about what overturning Roe v. Wade means for abortion rights

From CNN's Tierney Sneed

Abortion rights supporters gather for a demonstration outside the Supreme Court on Friday.
Abortion rights supporters gather for a demonstration outside the Supreme Court on Friday. (Sarah Silbiger for CNN)

The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade Friday, holding that there is no longer a federal constitutional right to an abortion. Going forward, abortion rights will be determined by states, unless Congress acts. 

Here are the answers to some of the most common questions about what this ruling means.

Will women get arrested for having an abortion?

An abortion-seeker's criminal liability will depend on the abortion policies that her state put into place.

Leaders of the anti-abortion movement have said in the past that women shouldn't be prosecuted for obtaining an abortion and that criminal laws prohibiting it should be aimed at abortion providers or others who facilitate the procedure. Several states with abortion prohibitions that could go into effect with Roe's reversal have language exempting from prosecution the woman who obtained the abortion.

There's also nothing to stop lawmakers from passing the laws calling for the prosecution of the people who sought the abortion.

In the event of rape or incest or even underage pregnancy, where does the law lie for these individuals?

Exemptions in abortion bans for rape, incest or the health of the mother will now vary state by state. In the wave of abortion limits that have been passed by state legislatures recently in anticipation of the Supreme Court's ruling, only a few of the proposals included exemptions for rape and incest.

It's a question lawmakers will likely revisit now that the opinion has been handed down. While previewing plans to call a special legislative session once the opinion is issued, Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said he opposed rape or incest exemptions. On the flip side, Arkansas Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson told CNN this May that he supported adding rape and incest exemptions in the trigger law currently on the books in the state.

How are in vitro fertilizations defined? If a state defines the fertilized egg as a human with rights, then if a doctor fertilizes four eggs, but does [not] implant all four in a woman, is that homicide?

What this opinion means for fertility treatments is still uncertain. Some state laws have language that would appear to exempt the disposal of unused embryos created for IVF, but that language doesn't necessarily exempt the process of selective reduction — when a woman whose fertility treatments lead to multiple pregnancies has one or more of those fetuses terminated to protect the viability of the other fetuses and/or the health of the mother. More broadly, fertility law experts raise concerns about how Roe's reversal will embolden lawmakers to regulate IVF procedures — which have been largely shielded from the abortion debate because of the protections of Roe.

Why does the currently Democrat-controlled legislature not pass a federal law making abortion legal?

Democrats currently lack the votes to dismantle the Senate filibuster, a 60-vote procedural mechanism that Republicans can use to block federal abortion rights legislation — so as long as 40 senators oppose abortion rights. But it's worth noting that the Women's Health Protection Act — a bill that would codify and expand upon Roe — failed 49-51 when it was voted on in May in the Senate, meaning that, even without the filibuster, it would have not become law.

There are also legal questions about whether it would be constitutional for federal lawmakers to enact a nationwide ban. The late Justice Antonin Scalia stressed in his legal writings about abortion that the policy decisions belonged in the hands of individual states, while expressing skepticism that Congress has the constitutional authority to regulate the procedure.

Get more answers to common questions here.

9:33 a.m. ET, June 25, 2022

Roe v. Wade overturned by Supreme Court on Friday

From CNN's Tierney Sneed and Ariane de Vogue

Abortion rights activists march in protest after the overturning of Roe Vs. Wade by the US Supreme Court, in Denver, Colorado on Friday.
Abortion rights activists march in protest after the overturning of Roe Vs. Wade by the US Supreme Court, in Denver, Colorado on Friday. (Jason Connolly/AFP/Getty Images)

O Friday, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, holding that there is no longer a federal constitutional right to an abortion. 

The opinion is the most consequential Supreme Court decision in decades and will transform the landscape of women’s reproductive health in America. 

Going forward, abortion rights will be determined by states, unless Congress acts. Already, nearly half of the states have or will pass laws that ban abortion while others have enacted strict measures regulating the procedure.

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