The legal right to abortion in the US could be overturned, according to a leaked report that suggests the Supreme Court has voted to strike down the Roe v Wade abortion law.
The 1973 ruling gave people the right to an abortion in the first three months of pregnancy, along with limited rights in the second trimester.
However, Justice Samuel Alito said the Roe v Wade decision was ‘egregiously wrong from the start’, according to the leaked 98-page draft opinion, which was first shared by Politico.
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Alito not only rejects the 1973 ruing, but also a subsequent 1992 decision known as Planned Parenthood v Casey, which essentially reaffirmed the right to an abortion.
In the document, Alito says: “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
As per the draft, he also says abortion presents ‘a profound moral question’, adding: “The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each state from regulating or prohibiting abortion.”
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Politico reports that no draft decision in the modern history of the court has been disclosed publicly while a case is still pending, with journalists Josh Gerstein and Alexander Ward referring to the news as an ‘unprecedented revelation’.
They added that the court’s holding will not be final until it is published, which is likely to be in the ‘next two months’.
Following the leak, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a joint statement: “If the report is accurate, the Supreme Court is poised to inflict the greatest restriction of rights in the past 50 years – not just on women but on all Americans.
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“The Republican-appointed Justices’ reported votes to overturn Roe v. Wade would go down as an abomination, one of the worst and most damaging decisions in modern history.”
Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also warned that, if true, the move would be a ‘direct assault on the dignity, right, and lives of women, not to mention decades of settled law’.
She said: “It will kill and subjugate women even as a vast majority of Americans think abortion should be legal. What an utter disgrace.”
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Planned Parenthood said the report ‘makes it clear our deepest fears out coming true’, adding: “We have reached a crisis moment for abortion access. We don’t have a moment to spare – we must act now."
Politico said a Supreme Court spokesperson declined to comment or make another representative of the court available to answer questions about the draft document, while Reuters also said the Supreme Court and the White House had declined to comment, adding that it was not able to confirm the authenticity of the draft.
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Topics: US News
Jess Hardiman