Breaking: Democrats Horrified by Draft Opinion Overturning Roe: ‘Ripped Up the Constitution’

Prominent Democrats reacted with horror to the Monday night leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion that, if adopted, would overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion on a national level.

The draft Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health opinion, which upholds Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, was written on February 10 by Justice Samuel Alito, with Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, Barrett and Kavanaugh concurring. Chief Justice John Roberts does not plan to join the majority in overturning Roe, CNN reported.

“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely – the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,” Alito wrote. “That provision has been held to guarantee some rights that are not mentioned in the Constitution, but any such right must be ‘deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition’ and ‘implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.'”

Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey excoriated the Court in response to the draft ruling, first reported by Politico, alleging that Republicans stole the five out of nine Supreme Court seats now occupied by conservative, originalist justices while calling for overhauling the institution via court-packing.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer released a joint statement accusing the high court of being undemocratic and discarding the Constitution in a rogue ruling.

“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 Democratic leaders wrote. “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 they've relied on for half a century.”

Rather than outlaw abortion immediately, the ruling would mean that the Supreme Court has deferred the major question of abortion to state legislatures.

The radical progressive wing of the Democratic Party urged swift action in Congress to codify the right to abortion into federal law amid the Supreme Court leak.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez urged her Democratic colleagues to support legislation that would codify the right to an abortion nationally: “People elected Democrats precisely so we could lead in perilous moments like these- to codify Roe, hold corruption accountable, & have a President who uses his legal authority to break through Congressional gridlock on items from student debt to climate. It's high time we do it.”

Senator Bernie Sanders also demanded immediate legislative action, vowing to eliminate the filibuster, the 60-vote hurdle necessary to advance a bill, currently standing in the way. Centrist Democratic senators Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema, crucial swing votes in an evenly divided Senate, have repeatedly refused to support killing the filibuster to pass abortion legislation. In February, Democrats’ first attempt to enshrine Roe failed with the Women's Health Protection Act when the Senate was unable to invoke cloture and proceed with a vote.

“Congress must pass legislation that codifies Roe v. Wade as the law of the land in this country NOW. And if there aren't 60 votes in the Senate to do it, and there are not, we must end the filibuster to pass it with 50 votes,” Sanders said.

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Democrats Horrified by Draft Opinion Overturning Roe: ‘Ripped Up the Constitution’

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