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Yesterday a Supreme Court draft opinion was leaked to the public. In it, several judges have voiced how they wanted to overturn the abortion ruling in the Roe v. Wade landmark case. In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of legalizing abortion in the United States.
Since then there has been great controversy about the subject being ethical, moral, and in some cases legal. For several decades people on both sides of the fence have held protests. Some protests or abortion clinics have seen a violent end because of extremists.
On May 3, 2022, President Joe Biden voiced his thoughts about the abortion draft opinion. He stated that reversing the 1973 ruling would be a “radical decision.” He stated that Congress needs to systematize abortion protections. However, Biden did not say he would support terminating the filibuster in the Senate to allow such legislation to pass in the evenly divided chamber.
Earlier in the day, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. confirmed the document was authentic, however, it is not the final draft. Furthermore, he is opening an investigation on how the draft opinion became public.
The leaked draft opinion has sparked fierce debate over the future of a woman’s rights over their bodies in the U.S.
These debates have even reached social media. MSNBC posted a clip of Senator Elizabeth Warren on Twitter and many people replied. One person wrote: “What good is the constitution if judges can creatively interpret it. Congress should do their job and pass laws. That’s what democracy is for. Not circumvent the process because you can’t get it by votes.” Another person replied, “SCOTUS: Women can have pretend equality.”
In the clip, Warren stated that she had “seen a world where abortions were illegal.” She added, that Congress needed to step up and fix things ending with “we are not going back.”
"We are not going back": Sen. Elizabeth Warren joins abortion rights supporters protesting outside the Supreme Court after a draft opinion on a potential vote to overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked by Politico. https://t.co/ybGxYgT0qk pic.twitter.com/ne7FrjFHjO
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) May 3, 2022
If the draft opinion goes through it will give states permission to create their own laws about abortion.
Written by Sheena Robertson
Sources:
The Washington Post: Biden says draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade takes ‘radical’ approach; by John Wagner and Mariana Alfaro
Planned Parenthood: Roe v. Wade at Risk: Nationwide Legal Abortion May Be a Thing of the Past
The New York Times: A Brief History of Deadly Attacks on Abortion Providers; by Liam Stack
Imaging Courtesy of Lorie Shaull’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License