North Gwinnett News

The state of Georgia is among those that could experience sudden and profound change if the U.S. Supreme Court holds firm to reports justices are now planning to overturn Roe v. Wade.

"Drafts change drastically between the first draft and what the public usually sees," Emory University law professor Fred Smith Jr., who specializes in Constitutional law, recently told Fox5Atlanta.com. “They get better. They get more precise. They respond better to opposing arguments, and sometimes they no longer command a majority by the time the opinion ultimately comes out because justices have read a dissenting opinion, or they've read a concurring opinion that has different reasoning that they find more persuasive."

POLITICO recently released a leaked draft opinion penned by Justice Samuel Alito on a Mississippi abortion ban in which it appears the court is poised to strike down that 1973 decision.

The state's "heartbeat" abortion bill, which banned abortion procedures after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which is at about six weeks gestation, could become state law if Roe vs. Wade is overturned.

"Roe was egregiously wrong from the start," Justice Alito wrote for the majority.

While news of the proposed change has quickly spread across the country, legal experts counter that the opinion was just a first draft that was actually penned several months ago.

"They respond better to opposing arguments, and sometimes they no longer command a majority by the time the opinion ultimately comes out because justices have read a dissenting opinion, or they've read a concurring opinion that has different reasoning that they find more persuasive," Smith added.

With the court decision expected to be rendered sometime by July, some are predicting the ruling could also spur GOP state lawmakers to pass even more restrictive abortion laws.

Meanwhile, pro-choice advocates continue to argue the ban stands to take effect before many women even know they are pregnant, filing a legal challenge to stop the bill from becoming law after Gov. Brian Kemp signed it into law in May 2019.

Last fall, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit established that it could not rule on the Georgia law until after the Supreme Court made a decision about the Mississippi abortion ban.