Abortion storm rocks America as Supreme Court leak suggests Roe v Wade ruling set to be overturned

Anger erupted on Tuesday after a bombshell leak suggested that the US supreme court looks set to overturn Roe v Wade, the landmark ruling that legalised abortion nationwide in America.

The draft opinion, which was immediately branded one of the “most damaging decisions in history”, is said to conclude that the 1973 judgment was “egregiously wrong” and should be overturned to allow states to determine the issue themselves.

If confirmed when the final decision is published, it means that abortion will immediately become illegal in 22 states which have already passed so-called “trigger laws” in anticipation of the constitutional change. Abortion would also become restricted in several others in a change which Democrat politicians and pro-abortion campaigners today warned would turn back the clock on women’s rights with potentially fatal consequences.

“This decision is a direct assault on the dignity, rights and lives of women, not to mention decades of settled law,” said Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and Democrat presidential candidate. “It will kill and subjugate women even as a vast majority of Americans think abortion should be legal. What an utter disgrace.”

Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, and her Democrat colleague Chuck Shumer, the Senate majority leader, also hit out in a joint statement condemning the supreme court’s apparent finding as “an abomination, one of the worst and most damaging decisions in modern history”.

“If the report is accurate, the supreme court is poised to inflict the greatest restriction of rights in the past 50 years — not just on women but on all Americans,” they added.

Tuesday’s supreme court leak, obtained by the Politico website, shows that Justice Samuel Alito, one of six Republican-appointed judges on the nine-strong bench, has concluded in a 98-page draft opinion that the Roe v Wade judgment was “egregiously wrong from the start” and based on “exceptionally weak” reasoning.

The judge writes that it should be overturned as a result, along with a 1992 ruling, Planned Parenthood v Casey, which stipulates that states cannot place an “undue burden” on women seeking abortions before a foetus could survive outside the womb, at about 24 weeks.

“Far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have inflamed debate and deepened division,” states the leaked judgment, in which Justice Alito appears to be setting out the supreme court’s position.

“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. It is time to heed the constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”

The Roe v Wade ruling gave women in the US an absolute right to an abortion in the first three months of pregnancy, and limited rights in the second trimester. The law was under supreme court scrutiny after hearing a challenge in December to Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks.