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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, reacting to the Supreme Court’s “monstrous” draft decision that signaled it will overturn Roe v. Wade, slammed former President Trump, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and congressional Republicans for what she called an assault on “privacy, precedent and the Constitution.”
A draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito signaled the Supreme Court’s intent to overturn Roe v. Wade. The opinion was obtained and made public by Politico in an unprecedented and stunning leak from the high court.
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“This monstrous draft decision is a sweeping and severe restriction of Americans’ rights,” Pelosi, D-Calif., said Tuesday. “With it, Trump, McConnell and Republicans in Congress have assaulted privacy, precedent and the Constitution.”
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., meets with reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Pelosi said that should the Supreme Court strike down Roe v. Wade, the high court “would pave the way for Republicans to obliterate even more of our freedoms.”
“As drafted, Justice Alito’s argument — that women are not entitled to basic human rights today because they have been denied those rights for generations — is alarming and extremist,” Pelosi said, adding that the draft ruling “offers a dangerous blueprint for future assaults on some of our most cherished rights, which are rooted in the long-held constitutional right to privacy.”
Pelosi, again slamming the GOP, said “radical Republican-appointed Justices are poised to inflict unthinkable suffering on tens of millions of families across our country, especially in communities of color and low-income communities.”
“Democrats believe that every woman everywhere has the fundamental human right to reproductive care, one that is not limited by background, income or zip code,” Pelosi continued, adding that “her health decisions, including whether or not to terminate a pregnancy, belong to her.”
A crowd of people gather outside the Supreme Court, Monday night, May 2, 2022 in Washington following reports of a leaked draft opinion by the court overturning Roe v. Wade. (AP Photo/Anna Johnson)
Pelosi said the draft opinion “brazenly” ignores 50 years of “its own precedent,” and said the draft ruling “would seriously erode the legitimacy of the Supreme Court in the eyes of the American people.”
“Upholding the rule of law and maintaining the faith of the people require that the Court allow Roe to remain the law of the land,” Pelosi said.
But Pelosi warned that if the court does choose to “terminate” Roe, “Democrats will not relent in fighting back against the dire threat posed to women’s health, safety and well-being.”
“The Republican assault on Roe v. Wade is the latest manifestation of their decades-long disrespect of women,” Pelosi said. “Democrats respect women and their freedom.”
Pelosi said that Democrats “will never relent until reproductive rights are enshrined into law.”
Should Roe v. Wade be overturned, abortions would be left for the states to decide.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito addresses the audience during the “The Emergency Docket” lecture Thursday, Sept. 30, 2021 in the McCartan Courtroom at the University of Notre Dame Law School in South Bend, Ind. (Michael Caterina /South Bend Tribune via AP)
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” Justice Samuel Alito writes in the document, labeled the “Opinion of the Court” for the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
Alito notes that at the time the Court decided Roe, 30 states had active bans on abortion throughout pregnancy. Alito also wrote in the draft opinion that Americans hold “sharply conflicting views” on the subject.
“Some believe fervently that a human person comes into being at conception and that abortion ends an innocent life. Others feel just as strongly that any regulation of abortion invades a woman’s right to control her own body and prevents women from achieving full equality. Still others in a third group think that abortion should be allowed under some but not all circumstances, and those within this group hold a variety of views about the particular restrictions that should be imposed,” Alito wrote.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday in a statement acknowledged that “a copy of a draft opinion in a pending case” was published Monday night.
“Justices circulate draft opinions internally as a routine and essential part of the Court’s confidential deliberative work,” the high court said in a statement. “Although the document described in yesterday’s reports is authentic, it does not represent a decision by the Court or the final position of any member on the issues in the case.”
Chief Justice John Roberts also released a statement Tuesday saying that the court “will not be affected in any way” by the leak.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is seen prior to President Biden giving his State of the Union address during a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on March 1, 2022 in Washington. (Julia Nikhinson-Pool/Getty Images)
“To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed,” Roberts said. “The work of the Court will not be affected in any way.”
“We at the Court are blessed to have a workforce — permanent employees and law clerks alike — intensely loyal to the institution and dedicated to the rule of law. Court employees have an exemplary and important tradition of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial process and upholding the trust of the Court,” Roberts said.
“This was a singular and egregious breach of that trust that is an affront to the Court and the community of public servants who work here,” he continued.
Roberts said he has “directed the Marshal of the Court to launch an investigation into the source of the leak.”
Meanwhile, former President Trump told Fox News Digital the issue of abortion is best left to the states.
A popular liberal talking point that Amy Coney Barrett would back President Trump’s efforts to overturn the election didn’t come to fruition. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
“Well, the states will take over, so, it really is a position that many people have been saying, including people on the left, have been saying that the proper way to do this is for the states to take over,” Trump told Fox News. “And then they will have individual state cases, but that is really the proper way of doing it.”
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He added: “That’s why they said Roe was so wrong for so long, so, many people feel, no matter what their view, that this is, is the right way, and the way it should have been originally.”
Trump, during his presidency, appointed three conservative justices to the Supreme Court: Justice Neil Gorsuch, Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Justice Amy Coney Barrett.