According to a leaked draught of a majority decision, the Supreme Court is ready to tear down the right to abortion in the United States, undermining over 50 years of constitutional safeguards. The draught, acquired by Politico, was prepared by Justice Samuel Alito and has been circulating throughout the conservative-dominated court, according to the news source.
The 98-page draught majority opinion refers to the seminal Roe v Wade decision, which established the right to abortion in 1973 ‘From the outset, everything was horribly wrong. We hold that Roe and Casey must be overturned,’ Alito says in the ‘Opinion of the Court’ document and was published on the Politico website. ‘It is past time to follow the Constitution and restore the abortion debate to the people’s elected representatives.’
The Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that access to abortion is a fundamental right for women. In Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the Supreme Court protected a woman’s right to an abortion until the embryo is viable outside the womb, which is normally approximately 22 to 24 weeks of gestation. ‘The inescapable conclusion is that a right to abortion is not firmly founded in the Nation’s history and customs,’ Alito said.
Reproductive rights in the United States have come under attack in recent months as states tightened regulations, with some attempting to ban all abortions beyond six weeks when many women are not even aware they are pregnant. Right-wing lawmakers have begun an assault on abortion, while Democrats, headed by President Joe Biden, have fought back to defend abortion access. Hearing oral arguments in December about a Mississippi law that would prohibit most abortions after 15 weeks, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared inclined not only to uphold the law but also to overturn Roe v. Wade.
‘Crisis moment’
The nine-member court, which has been dominated by conservatives since former President Donald Trump’s selection of three justices, is scheduled to rule in the Mississippi case by June. According to Politico, citing a source familiar with the court’s discussions, four other conservative justices — Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett — sided with Alito, the author of the initial draught of the majority decision. The three liberal justices on the court were working on dissent, and it was unclear how Chief Justice John Roberts would vote in the end.
Politico emphasized that the document acquired was a draught and that justices occasionally modify their votes before issuing a final verdict. The release of the draught opinion while the matter is still being resolved is unprecedented. According to Politico, this was the first time in modern history that a draught opinion has been made public. When asked about the distributed draught, a Supreme Court spokesman responded, ‘Court has no comment’.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-choice research organization, 26 states are ‘certain or likely’ to outlaw abortion if Roe is reversed. States that want to do so may still be able to legally legalize abortion even if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v Wade. The draught ruling is ‘outrageous,’ according to Planned Parenthood, which operates abortion facilities across the country, but it ‘is not final’. ‘Abortion is your right – and it is STILL LEGAL,’ Planned Parenthood tweeted. ‘While abortion remains legal, tonight’s study demonstrates that our darkest fears are being realized. We have reached a tipping point in terms of abortion access’, it continued.
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