If the US Supreme Court decides to uphold its leaked initial draft majority opinion in 2022, there will be several consequences and controversies such as women losing full federal constitutional protection of abortion rights. 

In other words, they could lose their legal right to terminate unwanted pregnancy.

According to the leak, the United States Supreme Court plans to commence a full repudiation of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

Justice Alito of the Supreme Court stated in the leaked initial majority opinion that: “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. 

Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. 

And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.”

He also stated that “it is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives , ”. Simply put, the authority to regulate abortion should rest in the hands of individual states. 

Now, the immediate effect of this ruling would be to end a half-century guarantee of federal constitutional protection of abortion rights and allow each state to decide whether to restrict or ban abortion as a whole. 

According to the New York Times, there are 20 states which would either prohibit or restrict abortion  if the Supreme Court strikes down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. 

In Mississippi, for instance, trigger laws banning nearly all abortions would take effect in a matter of days. 

This is because the state of Missisippi has already introduced legislation to ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Fearing the worst, hundreds of thousands of people across America have taken to the streets in recent weeks to protest the looming decision. 

Cries of "My body, my choice" rang out as activists committed to fighting for what they called reproductive freedom. 

In Washington, D.C., thousands have gathered at the Washington Monument before marching to the Supreme Court, which is now protected via two layers of protective fencing and rows of officers. 

The controversy, however, lies in the fact that no draft decision of a court has ever been disclosed publicly while a case is still pending. 

Per Josh Gerstein, a Legal Affairs Reporter from Politico, the disclosure of a Supreme Court draft opinion is a highly unusual occurrence.  

Gerstein, Supreme Court historians, former law clerks and others who have worked in the court stated that they do not recall a similar incident from happening during their tenure. 

As reported by Ted Cruz, a senator from Texas, he was truly stunned when the news broke out as “in over two centuries of  [U.S.] history … this has never happened.” 

Cruz argues that the leak was a breach of the Supreme Court’s trust which caused mayhem and confusion. 

The Supreme Court leak has created a sense of mayhem and disorder in the United States, with hundreds of thousands of protesters protesting the results of the Supreme Court leak. 

If the final verdict is in accordance with the leaked draft opinion, it would send shock waves across the United States and potentially to other states as well. 

The United States is seen as a beacon of freedom, and thus, foreign states may use the US as a justification for initiating their own pervasive domestic abortion policies.