The United States Supreme Court has declined to decide whether fetuses are entitled to constitutional rights in light of the overturning of the landmark reproductive rights case Roe vs Wade (1973). 

On Tuesday, the justices dismissed an appeal by a Catholic group and two women challenging a ruling by the Rhode Island Supreme Court. The two women, pregnant when the case was first filed, sued on behalf of their fetuses and later gave birth.

In May, The Rhode Island court upheld a state law guaranteeing its citizens’ right to abortion.

Citing the landmark decision, the court found that the unborn children of the previously pregnant plaintiffs were not “persons” who could bring legal claims. It also found that they had no standing because they were not harmed either, having been born since the case began.

Since the Supreme Court overturned abortion and reproductive rights have been deliberated at the state level. In Georgia, foetuses are recognised at around six weeks of pregnancy. The fetal heartbeat bill aimed to ban abortion after the fetal cardiac activity had been detected. 

Under state law, pregnant women in the U.S. state of Georgia can deduct their fetuses as dependents on their taxes under a 2019 anti-abortion law that went into effect in August.  

The state’s tax agency said that any woman whose fetus has a detectable heartbeat as of July 20, the date of the court ruling, can take a personal tax exemption in the amount of $3,000 for each fetus, if she is carrying more than one.

In June, Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion that tossed out the landmark case. Mr Alito was joined by the five other conservatives on the high court, including Chief Justice John Roberts.

“The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives,” the opinion said.

The case was met with a 6-3 decision, with the court’s three liberal justices filing a dissenting opinion to the ruling.