The US Supreme Court could be about overturning the nationwide legal right to abortion, according to an unprecedented leaked draft of a court document.

In the 98-page draft opinion, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the 1973 Roe v Wade decision legalising abortion across the US is “egregiously wrong”. Should the top US court strike down the ruling, “trigger laws” could instantly make abortion illegal in the 22 US states.

The Justices are not expected to issue a ruling until early July 2022. The 1973 law is in the court’s sights because it is weighing up a challenge to Mississippi’s Law which bans abortion after 15 weeks, which the Justices heard in December 2021.

But the reported threat to Roe v Wade came at a time when reproductive rights are being threatened in Republican-leaning states around the US. This has sparked immediate outcry from Democrats, and protests by both pro and anti-abortion supporters outside the Supreme Court on Monday (May 2, 2022) night.

A Quick Response from Authorities

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer, both Democrats issued a joint statement saying that if the report was accurate, the “Supreme Court is poised to inflict the greatest restriction of rights in the past 50 years”. A news outlet, Politico, published the leaked document in full, quoting some portions of Justice Alito’s report.

“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and 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.”
Portions of the leaked document

Neither the Supreme Court nor the White House has commented on the leak. Six of the nine current Justices on the court were appointed by Republican Presidents. The other three were picked by Democratic Presidents. Politico reported that Justice Alito and four other Republican-appointed Justices, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, were in favour of the move against Roe v Wade but it is not clear how Chief Justice John Roberts will vote.

What Could Happen?

The leaked document is marked as a “1st Draft” and it was circulated in February, according to Politico. If issued as a majority ruling, Justice Alito’s opinion would overturn the constitutional right to abortion in the US, paving the way for individual states to ban the procedure altogether, or place more restrictions on it.

The American Civil Liberties Union averred if confirmed, the decision “would deprive half the nation of a fundamental, constitutional right that has been enjoyed by millions of women for over 50 years”.

Effect of the Leaked Document

According to another report, the leak itself will cause tremendous damage to one of America’s most respected institutions and likely see a full-blown investigation, involving the FBI, to unmask the source.

Roe v Wade in 1973 gave women in the US an absolute right to an abortion in the first three months of pregnancy, and limited rights in the second trimester.

In 1992, in Planned Parenthood v Casey (a case that was brought to the court), the court ruled that States could not place an “undue burden” on women seeking abortions before a foetus could survive outside the womb, at about 24 weeks.

As of 2019, there were about 630,000 reported abortions, according to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC). This was an 18% decrease compared with 2010. Women in their 20s accounted for the majority of abortions, with statistics from 2019 suggesting that about 57% of the women were in this age (20) group.

Statistics also suggest that Black Americans get abortions at the highest rate. For every 1000 women, 27 of them between the ages of 15 and 44 are involved in abortion.