WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Right now, Roe V. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case protecting abortion rights, is on the verge of being overturned.
Tuesday, Chief Justice John Roberts confirmed a draft opinion leaked to Politico is real. In the draft, the court’s conservative majority appears set to change course and overrule Roe v. Wade.
This would mean abortion could soon fall on the backs of individual states which would impact upcoming elections.
Dr. Denise Nation is the chair of the Department of History, Politics, and Social Justice at Winston-Salem State University. She said abortion is currently legal in North Carolina with some restrictions on how service is provided.
“We understand that several states have trigger bans in place,” Nation said. “Our state is not one of those states. We do have restrictions on abortions where we have 20 weeks when the Roe decision is 23 weeks.”
If this draft decision passes, she said she’s not confident North Carolina’s restrictions on abortion will stay the same but would ultimately be up to state lawmakers.
"We do have a democratic governor so he obviously can overturn some of these laws that are coming through the assembly and the legislature is of course primarily republican,” Nation said. “We know that folks are leaning towards this idea around restrictive and I'm not sure where our state will end up on this continuum, but I'm not confident that we would just stick with what we have on the books right now.”
This is a draft decision that was leaked, and it could change before a final ruling is made by the justices this summer.