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Politico has allegedly obtained a leaked draft majority opinion in which the US Supreme Court repudiates the landmark Roe v Wade “right to abortion” decision from 1973. This would be a stunning reversal in the context of the ongoing fight for life in America.

The news is astonishing on more than one front. Never before in modern history has a draft decision been leaked before the case was officially resolved.

According to the Politico report, Justice Samuel Alito, who has been a Supreme Court justice since 2006, wrote the decision. “It is time to heed the Constitution,” he said, “and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”

As Politico noted:

“The immediate impact of the ruling as drafted in February would be to end a half-century guarantee of federal constitutional protection of abortion rights and allow each state to decide whether to restrict or ban abortion.”

In the draft decision, Alito wrote:

“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.”

The law would, according to Politico, ‘almost immediately lead to stricter limits on abortion access in large swaths of the South and Midwest, with about half of the states set to immediately impose broad abortion bans.’

You can read the full Politico article here and the leaked draft decision here.

The response has been predictably varied based on attitudes towards abortion. According to CNN, crowds gathered outside the Supreme Court chanting, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Samuel Alito’s gotta go,” “Abortion rights are under attack, what do we do, stand up fight back” and “Pack the courts.”

Washington Examiner reporter Cami Mondeaux noted that barricades had gone up around the Court ‘just minutes’ after Politico’s leaked report:

On the other hand, Lila Rose, the founder of the pro-life advocacy group Live Action, wrote that the decision would be ‘an important step in the right direction of protecting our fundamental right to life’.

Nonetheless, she said, more needed to be done.

“Democracies shouldn’t have the ability to vote on if a genocide can be committed against an entire group of people.”

How each justice will ultimately vote is still unclear, and the final decision remains uncertain. Nonetheless, the draft seems to indicate that the Court will hand down the momentous ruling in late June.

The news comes just days after Christians in Australia began praying for America throughout the month of May, a campaign that coincides with the Canberra Declaration’s Prayer & Fasting campaign for the Australian Federal Election.

It also comes just two days before the American National Day of Prayer.

In light of this encouraging news, Christians should give thanks to God and continue to pray for all human life to be protected both here and overseas.