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The Supreme Court may be gearing up to overturn the historic landmark Roe V. Wade ruling according to a draft majority decision that was leaked to the public this week.
POLITICO received the 98-page document from a well-known source who was connected to the Mississippi case and who was able to authenticate the alleged court proceeding with more official details, the publication reported. While concerning, the verdict won’t be finalized until the case is officially over.
The document which was written by Justice Samuel Alito claims that the 1973 decision to protect abortion rights under the constitution “was egregiously wrong from the start.”
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” Alito writes in the draft which was labeled “Opinion of the Court.”
“It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
In the past, Justices have been known to change their vote as major draft opinions circulate throughout the court, so this draft decision could be subject to change in the days leading up to the verdict. Analysts believe the court case will most likely occur sometime within the next two months.
The draft is controversial for so many reasons. No draft decision has ever been leaked and disclosed publicly while a case is still pending. If Roe V. Wade is overturned, grim consequences could follow. Each state would be left to make its own decision on whether to restrict or ban abortion, and some states are already leaning toward the ladder.
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If it is abolished, nearly 26 states would ban abortion outright or make services extremely limited for those looking to seek treatment. Officials who oppose the measure fear that women would be forced to travel to other states to receive abortion services or resort to unsafe practices to undergo the procedure, adding more medical and financial barriers. This summer, the Supreme Court is expected to make a decision on the abortion law in Mississippi that prohibits women from undergoing an abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Earlier this month, Democratic Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed a law banning legal action against medical professionals who perform abortions and those who receive abortion treatment. The move came in response to the stringent Texas law that allows people to sue medical abortion providers or those who assist them.
In the majority document, Alito slammed into Roe V. Wade ripping into the half of century-old law.
“The decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division,” he writes, calling the decision “constitutionally irrelevant” and its reasoning “exceptionally weak.”
“The inescapable conclusion is that a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and traditions,” Alito adds.
Further along in the document, the Justice points to times when well-known liberal icons like the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe argued in favor of Roe V. Wade and its impact on the political process.
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