In January 1973, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that all women in the nation had a constitutional right to abortion. This decision made previous state-level abortion bans illegal and stood for just over 49 years. On Friday, June 24, the Supreme Court reversed that decision and removed such nationwide protections for abortion. This ruling does not make abortion illegal in the U.S. It simply removes federal protections for abortion and instead allows individual states to decide whether or not mothers have the right to terminate the life of their unborn child.