Chief Justice John Roberts would have stopped short of ending the abortion right, noting that he would have upheld the Mississippi law at the heart of the case, a ban on abortion after 15 weeks, and said no more.
Anti-abortion advocates outside the Supreme Court
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Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan - the diminished liberal wing of the court - were in dissent.
"With sorrow-for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection-we dissent," they wrote.
The Biden administration and other defenders of abortion rights have warned a decision overturning Roe also would threaten other high court decisions in favor of gay rights and even potentially, contraception.
But Justice Alito wrote in his draft opinion that his analysis addresses abortion only, not other rights that also stem from a right to privacy that the high court has found implicit, though not directly stated, in the Constitution.
Abortion is different, Justice Alito wrote, because of the unique moral question it poses.
