Leaked Draft Indicates Supreme Court Will Overturn Roe v. Wade
Politics

Leaked Draft Indicates Supreme Court Will Overturn Roe v. Wade

The US Supreme Court will reportedly overturn Roe v. Wade, according to Politico.

On Monday, the outlet claimed to have obtained a first draft of the court's majority opinion that appears to strip away the constitutional protections provided by the landmark 1973 ruling and 1992's Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision.

Currently, the government cannot interfere with a woman's choice to abort before 23 weeks, or when a fetus can technically live outside the womb. However, this latest ruling upholds Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban as part of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case. Per CNN, this will likely result in individual states being allowed to determine their own abortion policies, including Texas' controversial 6-week abortion ban.

Politico says the alleged 96-page document was given to them by a person familiar with the court's proceedings. Authored by conservative Justice Samuel Alito, it was circulated amongst other justices on February 10 and is a scathing rebuttal of the Supreme Court's original decisions.

Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Alito said, before adding that it was time to "return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”

The source also said that Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett voted with Alito, while Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan are of the dissenting opinion. However, it's apparently unclear how Chief Justice John Roberts will vote.

Even so, Politico also noted that justices typically "hold preliminary votes on cases shortly after argument and assign a member of the majority to write a draft of the court’s opinion," which is often amended with input from other justices. Granted, there have also been cases where justices change their votes entirely during the circulation of the draft opinions, meaning there's a potential for the purpoted ruling to change.

A final opinion is expected to be made public in late June, per CNN. The Supreme Court declined to comment on the report.

Read Politico's full report here.

Photo via Getty / Karen Bleier / AFP