A leaked draft from the U.S. Supreme Court suggests a full reversal of Roe v. Wade is on the horizon in the nation’s most promising challenge to abortion precedent in decades.
The draft of the majority opinion obtained by POLITICO is absolutely encouraging for the Pro-Life movement. The opinion, written by Pro-Life Justice Samuel Alito, is a clear, bold, categorical rejection of Roe. A person familiar with the court’s deliberations told POLITICO that Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett voted in the majority to overturn Roe entirely.
The draft, however, is not a final ruling.
A leak this big is unprecedented and could have been an attempt to intimidate the justices into preserving Roe.
Pro-Life advocates must continue to pray, especially for the justices’ fortitude, until the court officially issues a decision.
If Roe is overturned, the issue of abortion would be decided by each state legislature. Texas would immediately protect all preborn children from elective abortion.
The source stated the three Democratic-appointed justices – Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan – “are working on one or more dissents.”
Chief Justice John Roberts’ vote is unclear at this time.
The case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, regards a Mississippi ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Lower courts originally blocked the law because of Roe. On its own, the move to take up the case at all indicated that the Supreme Court intended to change something in the country’s abortion jurisprudence. The degree of that change, was unknown.
Texas Right to Life petitioned the court to overturn Roe in this high-profile case.
“One of the most ridiculous features of the Roe opinion is its insistence that an unborn child is nothing more than ‘potential life’… A fetus inside the womb is an actual life—both as a matter of law and as a matter of scientific fact.”
The atrocity of Roe v. Wade stained the moral fabric of our country for nearly 50 years. Today’s encouraging news indicates that Roe soon may be gone. Yet, new attacks on Life will emerge.
Already, abortion advocates are calling on Congress to ban states from passing Pro-Life laws. Congressional Democrats tried to pass such legislation in the House of Representatives in 2021 in response to the Texas Heartbeat Act, but the measure miserably failed in the Senate.
If and when the court overturns Roe, the Pro-Life movement must defeat attacks such as these and build a culture that values preborn children and pregnant mothers.
Texas Right to Life will:
- Build on our life-saving network of pregnancy resources across the state;
- Protect the lives of vulnerable patients by ending the deadly 10-Day Rule; and
- Defeat Planned Parenthood’s multimillion dollar efforts to turn Texas blue.