‘Dangerous Erosion Of Freedom’: Phillips Pans SCOTUS’ Roe v. Wade Plan

MINNESOTA — U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips said Tuesday that Roe v. Wade must be codified into law after a leaked draft opinion appeared to show the Supreme Court is poised to overturn the 1973 ruling that guaranteed federal protections for women seeking abortions.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s widely reported — and now confirmed to be authentic — draft majority opinion explaining the court’s potential decision to overturn its ruling 49 years ago represents “the impending destruction of women’s rights,” Phillips tweeted Tuesday.

POLITICO on Monday night exclusively published Alito’s draft opinion, which it called “a full-throated, unflinching repudiation of the 1973 decision which guaranteed federal constitutional protections of abortion rights and a subsequent 1992 decision — Planned Parenthood v. Casey — that largely maintained the right.”

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U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the draft majority opinion that “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” POLITICO reports.

Alito wrote in his draft opinion that “Roe and Casey must be overturned” and said the court must “return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”

POLITICO noted that Supreme Court justices can still change their votes as draft opinions circulate and the draft majority opinion will not be the court’s final ruling until it is published, “likely in the next two months.”

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday confirmed the authenticity of Alito's draft opinion included in POLTICO's report but said "it does not represent a decision by the Court or the final position of any member on the issues in the case."

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Chief Justice John Roberts said "this betrayal of the confidences of the Court" will not affect justices "in any way" and "will not succeed."

The leak of the draft majority opinion "was a singular and egregious breach of that trust that is an affront" to the Supreme Court and "the community of public servants who work here," Roberts said Tuesday in a statement.

Roberts also ordered an investigation into how the draft majority opinion was leaked to the press.

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Phillips said the “impending destruction of women’s rights protected by Roe v. Wade is a direct result of recent changes to Senate rules” and called for those rules to change and for the filibuster to be abolished.

“Our nation has never experienced nor can ever accept such a dangerous erosion of freedom, liberty, and privacy,” Phillips tweeted. “We must codify (abortion rights) into law using every tool our founders afforded the Congress.”

Phillips voted in September to approve the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would codify protections established almost 50 years ago by the Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Women’s Health Protection Act by a vote of 218-211 on Sept. 24, but the bill was shot down by a 46-48 vote in the U.S. Senate.

Read the full report and Justice Samuel Alito’s draft majority opinion at POLITICO.