Fury, praise over Roe ruling

A draft Supreme Court opinion that would overturn a half-century of abortion rights shocked lawmakers, sharpened political divisions and prompted calls to action when it leaked overnight.

The draft published by Politico indicates the conservative-leaning court is poised to toss out the precedent established by Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, two rulings that have enshrined abortion protections in America for decades.

The unprecedented leak triggered a wave of horror and fury from abortion-rights advocates and like-minded political leaders in Washington, most of whom are Democrats. Many of them called for Congress, held by thin Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, to immediately move to codify abortion rights through legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Tuesday morning that he intends to hold a vote to enshrine Roe’s protections into law.

It’s “not an abstract exercise. This is as urgent and real as it gets,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “The elections this November will have consequences, because the rights of 100 million women are on the ballot,” he added.

Republicans’ outrage, meanwhile, was focused on the leak itself. They lamented the damage that such a leak could inflict on the high court’s integrity, and many pushed for a full investigation into who leaked the draft.

Those GOP lawmakers who commented on the content of the leak praised the ruling for putting decisions about abortion in the hands of states instead of the federal government.

Here are some of the reactions from prominent politicians and interest groups:

President Joe Biden

“I believe that a woman’s right to choose is fundamental, Roe has been the law of the land for almost fifty years, and basic fairness and the stability of our law demand that it not be overturned.

“[…] 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.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

“If the report is accurate, the Supreme Court is poised to inflict the greatest restriction of rights in the past fifty years – not just on women but on all Americans.

“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.

“Several of these conservative Justices, who are in no way accountable to the American people, have lied to the U.S. Senate, ripped up the Constitution and defiled both precedent and the Supreme Court’s reputation — all at the expense of tens of millions of women who could soon be stripped of their bodily autonomy and the constitutional rights…