Roe v. Wade To Be Overturned, Ending Constitutionally Protected Abortion: Supreme Court

It has been reported that the Supreme Court has prepared an opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade, the historic decision that grants women the right to an abortion under the Constitution. Justice Samuel Alito penned the draft majority opinion, which was made available to Politico by the Supreme Court.

“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Justice Alito writes in the 98-page draft opinion, published by Politico.

Both the 1973 judgment that established constitutional safeguards for abortion rights, as well as the succeeding Planned Parenthood v. Casey ruling in 1992, have been rejected by the United States Supreme Court.

“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” he writes in the document, labeled as the “Opinion of the Court.”

“It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.” Alito continued.

Rather than ending federal abortion rights, the draft opinion, which was prepared in February, would leave the discretion on whether to limit or prohibit abortions to each individual state. According to Politico, it is unclear if the document has been revised since it was first published.

According to the publication, no draft ruling has ever been given to the public while a final decision on a matter was still pending in the court’s contemporary historical record.

According to Politico, SCOTUS justices have been known to alter their votes when differing viewpoints spread, and significant rulings such as this may go through numerous revisions before a final decision is reached.

In December, the court gathered after oral arguments, and a person familiar with the proceedings informed the outlet that four other conservative justices – Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett – supported Alito in his decision.

Since the Roe v. Wade decision 49 years ago, the right to have an abortion up to roughly 23 or 24 weeks has been guaranteed by the federal government under the Constitution.