Leak hints Supreme Court will overturn abortion law
A draft opinion circulated among United States Supreme Court justices suggests that earlier this year a majority of them had thrown support behind overturning the 1973 case Roe vs Wade that legalised abortion nationwide, according to a report yesterday in Politico.
It’s unclear if the draft represents the court’s final word on the matter.
AP could not immediately confirm the authenticity of the draft Politico posted, which if verified marks a shocking revelation of the high court’s secretive deliberation process, particularly before a case is formally decided.
The news outlet published what was labelled as a “1st Draft” of the “Opinion of the Court” in a case challenging Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks, a case known as Dobbs vs Jackson Women’s Health Organisation.
The Supreme Court has yet to issue a ruling in the case, and opinions — and even justices’ votes — have been known to change during the drafting process.
The court is expected to rule on the case before its term is up in late June or early July.
The draft is signed by Justice Samuel Alito, a member of the court’s six-three conservative majority, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush.
“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” the draft opinion states.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be over-ruled,” it adds, referencing the 1992 case Planned Parenthood vs Casey that affirmed Roe’s finding of a Constitutional right to abortion services but allowed states to place some constraints on the practice. “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
The draft opinion in effect states there is no Constitutional right to abortion services and would allow individual states to more heavily regulate or outright ban the procedure.
Politico said only that it received “a copy of the draft opinion from a person familiar with the court’s proceedings in the Mississippi case along with other details supporting the authenticity of the document”.