- According to a media report, the US Supreme Court is apparently tending to overturn its 1973 landmark ruling on abortion.
- This emerges from a draft of the verdict, which is available to the magazine “Politico” and, according to the report, is circulating in the court.
- The published document is dated February 10 – it is unknown whether the draft has changed since then or whether there have been other drafts.
In the draft, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito referred to the case law as “Roe v. Wade’ is known to be ‘wrong from the start’. “We think Roe and Casey must be dismissed,” Alito wrote in the document, which is intended to reflect the opinion of the majority of the judges.
«Roe v. Wade» regulates the possibility of terminating pregnancies until the fetus is viable – today around the 24th week of pregnancy. Another 1992 ruling, Planned Parenthood v. Casey »judgment, strengthened the comparatively liberal jurisprudence.
The way for bans would be free
If the mostly conservative Supreme Court overturns the case law, the way would finally be clear for stricter abortion laws – up to complete bans in the individual US states.
Several conservatively governed states have already significantly tightened their rules on abortions, but so far have had to fear that the laws will be overturned by the Supreme Court because they violate the landmark ruling.
However, it does happen that judges change their minds while papers circulate in court and controversies continue, writes Politico. The US magazine expects a final decision from the court in the next two months.