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04-05-2022
WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden on Tuesday criticized as “radical” a draft US Supreme Court decision that would overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide, a bombshell that was denounced by Democrats and stunned even some moderate Republicans.
The court confirmed that the text, published late on Monday by the news outlet Politico, was authentic but said it did not represent the final decision of the justices, which is due by the end of June. Democrats scrambled to plan a response to the news that a half-century of abortion access for American women could come to an end.
“It’s a fundamental shift in American jurisprudence,” Biden said, arguing that such a ruling would call into question other rights including same-sex marriage, which the court recognized in 2015.
“It becomes the law, and if what is written is what remains, it goes far beyond the concern of whether or not there is the right to choose,” Biden added, referring to abortion rights. “It goes to other basic rights, the right to marriage, and the right to determine a whole range of things.”
The Roe decision recognized that the right to personal privacy under the US Constitution protects a woman’s ability to terminate her pregnancy.
Biden urged voters to elect US lawmakers who support abortion rights so Congress can pass national legislation codifying the Roe decision. Democratic-backed legislation to protect abortion access nationally failed in Congress this year as the razor-thin majority held by Biden’s party was insufficient to overcome Senate rules requiring a supermajority to move forward on most 
legislation. Democrats tend to support abortion rights. Republicans tend to oppose them.
Chief Justice John Roberts said he has launched an investigation into how the draft, authored by conservative Justice Samuel Alito, was leaked, calling it a “betrayal.”
“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,” Roberts said.
Following the disclosure, Democrats at the state and federal level and abortion rights activists searched for ways to head off the sweeping social change long sought by Republicans and religious conservatives.
US Senator Lisa Murkowski, a moderate Republican who has been supportive of abortion rights, also voiced dismay.
“If it goes in the direction that this leaked copy has indicated, I would just tell you that it rocks my confidence in the court right now,” Murkowski said, adding that she supports legislation codifying abortion rights. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
