In his own words: “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely — the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

Thus begins Justice Samuel Alito's February draft opinion that would end the constitutional right to an abortion in America, obtained exclusively by POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein and Alexander Ward.

We knew this was coming. Ever since last December’s oral arguments in the Mississippi abortion case, it seemed likely that there was a majority on the court to overrule Roe and Casey.

But while not a surprise, it was still shocking to see Alito’s words in black and white. The draft opinion, if it holds, would be the culmination of half a century of legal conservatives organizing around the idea that Roe was wrongly decided and needed to be reversed.

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