The draft opinion by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. was circulated among the justices in February with the support of at least five of the nine members of the court, but a final decision is not expected to be issued until June or early July. Such drafts routinely change as they are traded among the justices, who offer suggestions, make objections and at times even change their votes, so it is conceivable that the final result may yet be narrower than Justice Alito initially envisioned.

But the disclosure of his draft made clear that a bedrock of American law for the last half-century could be on the verge of being reversed. If the court follows through with some version of Justice Alito’s opinion, the constitutional right to abortion, first established by the court in 1973, would be negated and it would be left to the states to decide whether the procedure should be legal in their jurisdictions or not. The result would be a patchwork of different laws across the country, unless Congress steps in and sets a single national policy again.

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