- FOX NEWS - Jessica Chasmar - MAY 3, 2022 -
If Supreme Court overturns Roe v Wade
Overturning of 1973 case could spark wave of anti-abortion laws in half the country, report says
Thirteen states in the country are poised to enact immediate abortion bans and 13 more could quickly follow suit if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, as it appears set to do according to a draft opinion leaked to Politico.
The Supreme Court is expected to strike down Roe v. Wade, according to an unprecedented leak of a draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito in early February, which Politico published Monday evening.
The court confirmed the authenticity of the draft document on Tuesday. Analysts have suggested the leak may represent an attempt to pressure a Supreme Court justice to change his or her vote on the pivotal case. Should Roe v. Wade be overturned, abortions would be left for the states to decide.
"We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled," Justice Samuel Alito writes in the document, labeled the "Opinion of the Court" for the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. "It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives."
At least 13 states in the country have so-called "trigger laws" banning most abortions that would take effect immediately if Roe v. Wade is overturned. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion research group, those states are Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming, which just passed its trigger law last month.
There are also five additional states – Alabama, Arizona, Michigan, West Virginia and Wisconsin – with an abortion ban still on the books from before Roe v. Wade that could be reinstated if the law is overturned, according to Guttmacher's research.
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