CHICAGO, IL – The U.S. Supreme Court has voted to strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, per an initial draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito which was circulated inside the Court.
In 1973, Jane Roe filed a lawsuit against Henry Wade, District Attorney of Dallas County, where she resided, challenging a Texas law making abortion illegal expect by a doctor’s orders to save a woman’s life. In the lawsuit, Roe alleged that the state laws were unconstitutionally vague and abridged her right of personal privacy, which is protected by the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments.
The draft guaranteed federal constitutional protections of abortion rights and a subsequent 1992 decision – Planned Parenthood v. Casey – that largely maintained the right.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” Alito wrote claiming the “Opinion of the Court.” Joined by justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett stated, “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled.”
Chief Justice John Roberts asked the marshal of the U.S. Supreme Court to launch an investigation into the leaked draft opinion that suggests the high court is prepared to strike down the landmark 1973 ruling making abortion legal in all 50 states.
While not binding until its published, the leaked opinion provides a window into the high court’s thinking.
In the case at hand, which was argued in December, Mississippi asked the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade and uphold the state law that bans abortions after 15 weeks of gestation.
