The latest:
- Leaked document shows Supreme Court prepared to overturn Roe v. Wade
- World leaders express alarm on possible Roe v. Wade overturn
- In photos: Thousands rally across U.S. over abortion rights
- Abortion battleground states brace for midterm brawl
- Biden: "Radical" Supreme Court draft would threaten long-standing rights
- Collins says Kavanaugh and Gorsuch possibly broke promise on Roe v. Wade
- Democrats lack votes to end filibuster for abortion protections
- Democratic candidates call on Senate to nix filibuster for Roe
- Supreme Court opens investigation into Politico leak
- McConnell calls SCOTUS leak "an attack" on court independence
- Murkowski: Leaked draft "rocks my confidence" in Supreme Court
Go deeper:
Data: Axios Research; Cartogram: Sara Wise and Oriana Gonzalez/Axios
- What abortion access would look like if Roe v. Wade is overturned
- Abortions could require 200-mile trips if Roe is overturned
- The political leanings of the Supreme Court justices
- Red states race to enact new abortion restrictions
Catch up quick:
The Supreme Court is prepared to overturn Roe v. Wade, according to a leaked draft document first published by Politico.
Driving the news: Chief Justice John Roberts confirmed the authenticity of the leaked Supreme Court draft document on the end of Roe v. Wade, but said it did not represent the court's final decision.
Roberts said the court will open an investigation into the leak.
- The document was authored by Justice Samuel Alito in February and according to Politico, Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett all voted with Alito.
- “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” the draft states.
- "We can only do our job, which is to interpret the law, apply longstanding principles of stare decisis, and decide this case accordingly. We therefore hold that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives," per the draft.
- These draft documents don't reflect final vote tallies, but Republican-appointed justices have a 6-3 advantage on the court.
- The decision should be released sometime within the next two months and Roe is still currently the law though many red states have pushed ahead with abortion bans, confident the new measures will stand.
The big picture: If the Supreme Court were to overturn its precedents, abortion access would no longer be federally protected and instead a patchwork of state laws would govern the procedure, writes Axios' Oriana Gonzalez.
