A majority of Supreme Court justices are prepared to overturn abortion rights, according to a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion published by Politico. The document is an internally circulated majority draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito that would strike down Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.
In the draft, Alito also moves to overturn Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, the 1992 decision that upheld Roe v Wade. The draft majority opinion reads, “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. … It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.” The leaked opinion suggests five conservative justices would vote to overturn Roe, with Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett joining Alito.
Hundreds of protesters rallied outside the Supreme Court Monday evening after news of the court’s draft opinion broke.
Protester: “This is really just tearing apart everything that we’ve worked for and everything — all the change that we’ve worked for to happen. You know, it really just feels like all the work we put into was just torn up and thrown in the garbage. And it’s honestly ridiculous to me, because of how far we’ve come, for it to just be set back in time. Like, it feels like I jumped in a time machine and went back.”
If Roe is overturned, 13 states have so-called trigger laws that would make abortion illegal as soon as the court rules.