The Supreme Court is ready to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that established the federal right to an abortion over 50 years ago, according to a majority draft opinion published by Politico late Monday, May 2.
This is one of the biggest major breaches of confidential Supreme Court documents ever. While the document doesn’t represent the court’s final decision, it’s still a huge predictor of what the official court opinion will look like come June, the end of the Supreme Court term.
There are a lot of questions surrounding the leaked opinion, but NBN has you covered.
Why is the Supreme Court ruling on this again?
The Supreme Court accepted a new case for argument and ruling this term called Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. In this case, the state of Mississippi is looking to directly overturn both Roe and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey using a law that seeks to ban abortion after 15 weeks of gestation. (For reference, it can take up to six weeks of gestation for someone to learn they’re actually pregnant.)
After the Mississippi law was passed, the Jackson Women’s Health Organization – the last abortion clinic in the state – sued the Mississippi State Department of Health and won, making the law unenforceable. The state appealed to a higher court and lost again, so now Mississippi is appealing directly to the Supreme Court.
Dr. Thomas Dobbs, Mississippi’s state health officer, is representing the state – that’s why his name is on the case. Now that the lower court’s ruling is being appealed, Dobbs has swapped places from the defendant to the plaintiff.
The oral arguments for Dobbs were heard early last December, and true to SCOTUS tradition, all of the justices casted their preliminary votes afterward. But before looking at the majority vote and Alito’s opinion draft, it’s important to understand the rulings that Dobbs could overrule...
