Page:Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization - Court opinion draft, February 2022.pdf/1

  To: The Chief Justice Justice Thomas Justice Breyer Justice Sotomayor Justice Kagan Justice Gorsuch Justice Kavanaugh Justice Barrett From: Circulated: February 10, 2022&emsp;&emsp; Recirculated: &emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;

THOMAS E. DOBBS, STATE HEALTH OFFICER OF THE MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, ET AL., PETITIONERS v. JACKSON WOMEN'S HEALTH ORGANIZATION, ET AL.

delivered the opinion of the Court.

Abortion presents a profound moral issue on which Americans hold sharply conflicting views. Some believe fervently that a human person comes into being at conception and that abortion ends an innocent life. Others feel just as strongly that any regulation of abortion invades a woman's right to control her own body and prevents women from achieving full equality. Still others in a third group think that abortion should be allowed under some but not all circumstances, and those within this group hold a variety of views about the particular restrictions that should be imposed.

For the first 185 years after the adoption of the Constitution, each State was permitted to address this issue in accordance with the views of its citizens. Then, in 1973, this Court decided Roe v. Wade, 410 U. S. 113. Even though the Constitution makes no mention of abortion, the Court held that it confers a broad right to obtain one. It did not claim that American law or the common law had ever recognized