The Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the two cases that together essentially delineate the minimum rights of people in the United States who can become pregnant to have autonomy over their own bodies and access the health care they need, Politico reports. Approximately one in four people who can become pregnant in the United States (23.7%) will have had an abortion by the age of 45. Justice Alito’s draft majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, joined by Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, says “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak.” Only one of those justices was nominated by a President who won the popular vote upon first taking office; two have been credibly accused of sexually assaulting women.

Alito’s draft specifically argues the right to abortion does not exist because it was not mentioned in the Constitution and because it has no “deeply rooted legal history” — statements that are also true of racial equity, LGBTQ+ equality — and explicitly criticizes Lawrence v. Texas (the right of individuals to be intimate with consensual partners) and Obergefell v. Hodges (the right of same-sex people to marry). The House of Representatives passed the Women’s Health Protection Act prohibiting governmental restrictions on the provision of, and access to, abortion services in September of last year. To pass that legislation in the Senate would require eliminating the filibuster due to en masse opposition by Senate Republicans, something Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have repeatedly opposed. The Mississippi law at issue in the case bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. (Politico)