(The Hill) - The Supreme Court is poised to overturn the landmark 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade that protects a federal right to abortion, according to a draft majority opinion published Monday evening by Politico.
The 67-page document, described as an initial draft majority opinion penned by Justice Samuel Alito, one of the court’s staunchest conservatives, concludes with the majority stating that the Constitution says nothing about the rights of states to regulate or prohibit abortion, in contrast to Roe and the court’s 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
“We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives,” the opinion states. Under those cases, states were prohibited from banning abortion prior to fetal viability, around 23 weeks.
A spokesperson for the Supreme Court had no comment in response to questions.
The justices’ votes are often fluid up to the point of an opinion’s publication and the draft may have changed since February when it was purportedly written.
The Hill could not independently verify the document’s authenticity. But Politico, in an editor’s note, said it undertook an extensive review and “are confident of the authenticity of the draft.”
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