A leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion shows that a majority of the conservative court voted to strike down the landmark abortion rights decision made in Roe v. Wade, making it unprecedented in the Court’s modern history.
The leaked draft shows a majority of five justices have decided to allow states to outlaw abortion by overruling Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey and upholding an extremely controversial Mississippi law that criminalizes the termination of a pregnancy after 15 weeks.
Protests and condemnation against the leaked ruling erupted across the U.S. as well as around the world.
Taking away women’s rights to an abortion at a federal level would reverse a half-century of precedent.
If the Supreme Court moves forward with this decision, it would mean that abortion will be outlawed in huge swaths of the nation. It would force women to carry unwanted pregnancies to term unless they are able to travel to a state where abortion is made legal under state law, or they will be forced to risk undergoing an illegal procedure.
Early drafts of opinions have virtually never been leaked before the final decision is announced.
Legal experts warn that overturning Roe and Casey would give the Supreme Court’s conservative majority a path to overturn other landmark cases, including the 2015 case that legalized same-sex marriage in the U.S., as well as the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
Women’s rights experts and advocates have warned that women are being deprived of autonomy over their own bodies.
U.S. and international leaders immediately condemned the decision. President Joe Biden said that the decision to overturn Roe draws into question “every decision in your private life,” and called it a “radical decision” and a “fundamental shift in American jurisprudence.”
The White House released a statement from Biden saying that the government needs to protect a woman’s right to choose.
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