Politics & Government
Roe v. Wade ‘Must Become Law’: Rep. McCollum Reacts To Draft Opinion
Five of nine U.S. Supreme Court justices are planning to vote to overturn abortion protections under Roe v. Wade, POLITICO reported Monday.
MINNESOTA — U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum said Monday that Roe v. Wade “must become law,” hours 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 an abortion.
“Women’s reproductive choice belongs to women, not a right wing Supreme Court that will allow this fundamental human right to be criminalized,” McCollum tweeted Monday night in response to POLITICO’s exclusive report on the leaked draft majority opinion.
“I voted to #CodifyRoe. It must become law,” McCollum tweeted.
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POLITICO reported the draft opinion “is 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 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.”
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The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday confirmed the authenticity of Alito's draft opinion included in POLITICO'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."
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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McCollum 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.
“Even though the majority of Americans recognize and support the importance of safe, accessible abortion, attacks on reproductive rights continue across the nation,” McCollum said in September. “As we watch Republican-controlled state legislatures pass increasingly restrictive measures, it is past time to solidify the right to abortion in federal law.”
McCollum said the “extreme” anti-abortion movement “only seeks to deny women the fundamental liberty to make deeply personal decisions about their own reproductive lives.”
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.
McCollum represents Minnesota’s Fourth Congressional District, which includes most of Ramsey County and parts of Washington County.
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