In one of the most significant legal shifts in U.S. history, it was leaked Monday night (May 2) that the Supreme Court was planning to overturn the long-standing 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that granted federal constitutional protections for abortion rights and would now put the decisions on the legality of abortions within the hands of the governing bodies of the states instead.
As revealed by Politico, an initial draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito has circulated inside the court, stating that “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. We hold that Roe and Casey [1992’s Planned Parenthood v. Casey] must be overruled.” Alito added, “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
According to Politico, a person familiar with the court’s deliberations stated that the four Republican-appointed justices had voted with Alito in a conference held after oral arguments in December, while the three Democratic justices were working on one or more dissents, and that how Chief Justice John Roberts would vote or if he was drafting his own opinion remained unclear.
While the draft was leaked, the court’s ruling will not be finalized until it is published, reportedly within the next two months.
As pointed out by Slate, the leaking of a Supreme Court opinion is incredibly rare as the court is one of their more secretive bodies in the country. That has led to speculation about who was behind the leak and the motives involved, as mid-term elections near. President Biden said in a written statement, “If the court does overturn Roe, it will fall on our nation’s elected officials at all levels of government to protect a woman’s right to choose. And it will fall on voters to elect pro-choice officials this November. At the federal level, we will need more pro-choice senators and a pro-choice majority in the House to adopt legislation that codifies Roe, which I will work to pass and sign into law.”
Given the many ramifications of the potential ruling, there has been plenty of discourse about the issues involved online. Several musicians including Disturbed‘s David Draiman, Shinedown‘s Zach Myers, Lamb of God‘s Mark Morton and members of Periphery have contributed to the discussion, sometimes with each other.
In addition, one time death metal vocalist turned Virginia delegate Danica Roem offered, “To my constituents: No matter what happens with the SCOTUS ruling, the 49 years of precedent for your right to safe/legal abortion care will remain in VA *only* b/c of our 21-19 Senate Democratic majority. Majorities matter. Your privacy rights and healthcare are on the ballot.”
Read a sampling of the reaction to the leak of the Supreme Court draft to overturn Roe v. Wade below and check back as we’ll update this list as more reactions come in.
David Draiman (Disturbed)
Zach Myers (Shinedown)
Misha Mansoor (Periphery)
Jake Bowen (Periphery)
Del. Danica Roem
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