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Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday warned that “the rights of all Americans are at risk” amid the leak of draft opinion signaling the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade, declaring that “this is the time to fight for women and for our country with everything we have.”
“The United States Supreme Court has now confirmed that the draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade is genuine,” Harris said in a statement Tuesday. “Roe ensures a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion. It also, at its root, protects the fundamental right to privacy.”
“What is clear is that opponents of Roe want to punish women and take away their rights to make decisions about their own bodies,” Harris said. “Republican legislators in states across the country are weaponizing the use of the law against women.”
Harris added: “The rights of all Americans are at risk.”
“If the right to privacy is weakened, every person could face a future in which the government can potentially interfere in the personal decisions you make about your life,” Harris continued. “This is the time to fight for women and for our country with everything we have.”
Harris’ comments come after a leaked draft opinion, first reported by Politico, signaled the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade.
Should Roe v. Wade be overturned, abortion would be left for the states to decide.
Vice President Kamala Harris (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
“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.”
The Supreme Court on Tuesday in a statement acknowledged that “a copy of a draft opinion in a pending case” was published Monday night.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito (Michael Caterina /South Bend Tribune via AP)
“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.
“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.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Robertsaaa (Julia Nikhinson-Pool/Getty Images)
“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, the Biden administration last year directed the Gender Policy Council and Office of the White House Counsel to launch “a whole-of-government effort to respond” to the Supreme Court’s ruling that allowed Texas’s “extreme” law that banned more abortions to remain in effect.
President Biden on Tuesday said the councils have been preparing “options for an Administration response to the continued attack on abortion and reproductive rights, under a variety of possible outcomes in the cases pending before the Supreme Court.”
“We will be ready when any ruling is issued,” the president said.
The president also added that if the Supreme 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.”
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“And it will fall on voters to elect pro-choice officials this November,” Biden said. “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.”