US President Joe Biden on Tuesday urged Americans to vote in November’s legislative elections to defend the “fundamental” right to abortion if the Supreme Court strikes down constitutional guarantees that allow the procedure.
If the highest court overturns the jurisprudence that has founded abortion rights in the United States since the 1970s, “it will be up to our nation’s elected officials at every level of government to protect a woman’s right to choose. lawmakers in favor of the right to decide in November,” Biden said in a statement.
Biden’s statement comes a day after the leak of a document that would have been an internal draft of the US Supreme Court indicating that the body will change its understanding of abortion in the country, reversing the right guaranteed by the decision Roe v. Wade, 1973.
The text, signed by conservative judge Samuel Alito and dated February 10, would have circulated through the court and was released this Monday (2) by the Politico website.
The Supreme Court and the White House have not commented on the leak. Alito’s draft, as the vehicle highlights, constitutes “total and uncompromising repudiation” of Roe v. Wade, a decision that granted constitutional protection to the right to abortion, and another 1992 judgment —Planned Parenthood v. Casey—, who ratified it.
According to Politico, four other conservative judges —Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — would have endorsed Alito’s position, nominated by former President George W. Bush to the country’s highest court in 2006. from the progressive wing —Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan—, who are expected to form dissent, would be working to try to convince colleagues to change their position. It is unclear how John Roberts, a moderate, planned to vote.
Usually in the US Supreme Court, after an oral argument and an initial vote among the justices, one of them receives the majority opinion and prepares a draft, which is then distributed to the others. This is the document released by Politico on Monday. Between that initial vote and the final decision, however, each judge’s position may change. A decision is only final when published by the court.
