The Associated Press could not immediately confirm the authenticity of the Politico Post draft.
The Associated Press could not immediately confirm the draft’s authenticity. politician Post
A draft opinion circulated among Supreme Court judges shows that earlier this year most of them supported the reversal of the 1973 Roe v. Wade case. Legalized abortion nationwideAccording to a report published in Politico on Monday night. It is unclear whether the draft represents the court’s final word on the matter.
The Associated Press could not immediately confirm the authenticity of the draft posted by Politico, which when verified makes a shocking revelation of the high court’s secret deliberation process, especially before a case is formally decided.
A Supreme Court spokesperson said the court had no comment.
The news outlet labeled the case as the “first draft” of the “court’s opinion” challenging Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks, known as the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
The Supreme Court has yet to issue a ruling in the matter, and opinions — and even judges’ votes — have been known to change during the drafting process. The court is expected to rule on the matter before its term expires in late June or early July.
The draft is signed by Justice Samuel Alito, a member of the Court’s 6-3 conservative majority, who was appointed by former President George W.
“Roe was seriously wrong from the start,” the draft opinion said.
“We believe that Roe and Casey should be dismissed,” it refers to the 1992 case Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which affirmed Roe’s pursuit of a constitutional right to abortion services but gave states some constraints on the practice. allowed to keep. “It is time to pay attention to the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the elected representatives of the people.”
Effectively the draft opinion states that abortion services have no constitutional right and would allow individual states to more broadly regulate or outright restrict the procedure.
politician said only that it “received a copy of the draft opinion, along with other details supporting the document’s authenticity, from a person familiar with court proceedings in the Mississippi case.”
The report comes amid a legislative push to ban abortion in several Republican-led states — Oklahoma being the most recent — before the court issues its ruling. Critics of those measures have said that low-income women will disproportionately bear the burden of the new restrictions.
The leak sparked intense political resonance that was expected in the midterm election year following the High Court’s final decision. Already politicians on both sides of the aisle were capturing the report for fundraising and activating their supporters on either side of the hot-button issue.
An AP-NORC poll in December found that Democrats increasingly see protecting abortion rights as a high priority for the government.
Other polling shows relatively few Americans want to see Roe turn. In 2020, AP VoteCast found that 69% of voters in the presidential election said the Supreme Court should leave the Roe v. Wade ruling as is; Only 29 per cent said that the court should overturn the decision. In general, AP-NORC polling finds that the majority of the public is in favor of legalizing abortion in most or all cases.
abortion policy
Still, when asked about abortion policy in general, Americans tend to take a nuanced view of the issue, and many do not think that abortion should be possible after the first trimester or that women should be treated for any reason. Must be able to obtain a legal abortion.
Alito said the court cannot predict how the public might react and should not try. According to Politico, Alito wrote in the draft opinion, “We cannot allow our decisions to be influenced by any outside influence such as concerns about the public’s reaction to our work.”
In the debate in December, all six Conservative judges indicated they would uphold the Mississippi law, and five asked questions that suggested dismissing Roe and Casey was a possibility.
Only Chief Justice John Roberts seemed willing to take small steps to uphold the 15-week ban, although that would also be a significant dilution of abortion rights.
So far, the court has not allowed states to regulate abortions past the point of viability around 24 weeks.
The court’s three liberal justices were likely to disagree.
It is impossible to know what is going on behind the scenes to influence the vote of justice. If Roberts is willing to allow Roe to survive, she only needs to take another conservative vote to deny the court a majority to overturn the abortion landmark.