On May 2, 2022, the news outlet, Politico, received a leaked draft of the draft opinion that is 98 pages long. The incredibly rare leak of the supreme court decision revealed that the court will reconsider the standing of the Roe v. Wade case.
In 1973, Roe v. Wade was brought to the supreme court to settle whether abortions should be regulated or proscribed during the first trimester of one’s pregnancy. The supreme court came to the consensus that the woman should come to a decision with the consultation of her physician.
“I think Roe v. Wade opened doors for women in many ways. For example, it helped women who don’t have money or aren’t white. Many institutions make it hard to be a single mother and if you don’t have those resources, then getting an abortion is an important way to preserve your own life,” political science major at the University of Denver Ellie Stetson said.
Even though the case came to a conclusion, Roe v. Wade is still one of the most debated cases throughout the United States due to the polarizing opinions that came along with the case. And although years passed with Roe v. Wade being a case that protected a woman’s choice to decide what to do with her body, recently the Su.preme Court decided to take a different direction with the precedence of the case.
“The Supreme Court considers precedent – or past court decisions – in making its rulings, but it is not legally obligated to follow precedent in the same way that lower courts are. This means that if a majority of the Court believes a previous case was wrongly decided, they are free to overrule or overturn that case and set a new precedent going forward,” professor specializing in both American politics and gender and women’s studies at the University of Denver Sara Chatfield said.
States throughout the nation are going to either take immediate action or take time to write new legislation if the case is overturned. There are many states that the public knows are going to immediately illegalize abortions; however, there are also many states where the decision is inconclusive.
“The first draft is substantially different than what comes out in the final draft, so we need to know if it’s a full overturn of Roe v. Wade or if it’s an effective overturn. It matters because it will dictate how far anti-abortion states can go,” political science chair at the University of Denver Joshua Wilson said.
Congressman Robert Aderholt claims that they are going to wait for the decision to be finalized; however, they believe it will be an opportunity to pass laws that ban abortion. Unfortunately, this is the pattern for more states throughout the United States.
“We may see states begin to limit certain forms of birth control or even invitro-fertilization (IVF) procedures for people experiencing infertility. For example, Oklahoma’s governor recently signed a law banning abortion from fertilization which would potentially affect IVF,” Chatfield said.
According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, there are only eight states that will remain pro-choice and will expand access to abortions. These states are California, Oregon, Washington, New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Connecticut and Hawaii.
Although many states will have abortions become protected by legislation. There are a total of 14 states which include Alaska, Colorado, Nevada, Montana, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Florida, Maryland, Delaware, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Maine.
“I wouldn’t expect movement in those in-between states. I don’t think these states would take any immediate steps,” Wilson said.
However, three states in the United States do not have abortions protected by their state laws. These states are New Mexico, New Hampshire, and Virginia. Also, since Puerto Rico is a part of the United States, they are under fire if Roe v. Wade is overturned. Because of this, abortions will most likely have many severe restrictions.
“This will potentially result in an increase in unsafe abortion attempts as well as an increase in criminal cases for women. The perilous fallouts of these instances would impact women legally in terms of voter disenfranchisement as well as loss of other rights such as job accessibility and security,” political science major at the University of Oklahoma Isabel Guymon said.
The majority of the United States will prohibit abortion due to the populations in the states leaning more conservatively. There is a totality of 25 states that will most likely make abortions illegal, and these states are Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
“I think that Alito says a lot of things in the opinion that is disingenuous at best. For example, one of the reasons why he says they need to overturn Roe v. Wade is because the case created the contentious politics of abortion that we are all familiar with. So the assumption there is that you get rid of Roe v. Wade and you get rid of the politics,” Wilson said.
With so many states deciding to most likely illegalize abortions, according to PEW Research Center, 59% of United States adults believe that abortions should be legal, and 39% believe that it should be illegal in most or all cases. Therefore, with the majority believing that it should be legal for a woman to have an abortion, the leaked draft of Roe v. Wade was shocking to the nation.
“A majority of Americans oppose overturning Roe v. Wade. However, our political system incorporates multiple anti-majoritarian features that mean that what the people want doesn’t necessarily end up being the law. In the case of abortion specifically, Donald Trump was able to appoint three Supreme Court justices despite losing the popular vote, resulting in a conservative majority on the Court,” Chatfield said.
However, there are already states that are enforcing laws that are banning abortions. For example, Oklahoma already passed laws that ban abortion at the moment of conception. Governor Kevin Stitt signed House Bill 4327, making it the most strict law regarding abortion.
“Stitt’s recent signing of HB4327 is an apparent example of the passage of partisan agenda that denies women rights to their own bodily autonomy. Rarely are women able to know they’re pregnant before the four-week mark, let alone at the moment of conception,” Guymon said.
Other states are going to be passing many laws regarding abortion the following year once the draft was leaked. Due to the drafted opinion, the case will most likely be overturned around June. The court believed that the case was not correctly decided.
With this being such a heavy topic that has recently hit headlines, many people throughout the country are taking action for what they believe to be correct. There will be many discussions revolving around this topic for the next few years, and due to such a controversial topic, it seems as if there will never be a consensus over such a riveting topic.
MFJS Reporter Spring 2022 