SCOTUS will reportedly overturn Roe v. Wade during a year of pro-abortion vandalism on college campuses
The Supreme Court of the United States has apparently voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, per a leaked draft opinion obtained by Politico on Monday night.
The opinion was drafted after the Dec. 1 hearing of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which Campus Reform covered during the case's oral argument.
The Supreme Court of the United States has apparently voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, per a leaked draft opinion obtained by Politico on Monday night.
The opinion was drafted after the Dec. 1 hearing of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which has earned the reputation of being Roe’s biggest challenger to date in December.
Campus Reform reported on the college students protesting outside the Supreme Court during the Dec. 1 argument.
”Abortion is a fundamental human right,” one pro-choice protester told Campus Reform correspondent Antoinette Aho. “Everyone should have access to their own reproductive life.”
[RELATED: ‘Thank abortion providers’ during ‘Sex Week,’ student group tells classmates]
Another protester suggested that the “pursuit of happiness cannot exist without freedom of choice.”
The initial draft majority opinion was penned by Justice Samuel Alito in February and dictates that abortion access should be resolved by the states rather than be enforced by the federal government.
Alito allegedly wrote:
”It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives. ‘The permissability of abortion, and the limitations upon it, are to be resolved like most important questions in our democracy: by citizens trying to persuade one another and then voting...’ That is what the Constitution and the rule of law demand.”
The opinion also overturned Planned Parenthood of Southern Pennsylvania v. Casey, the 1992 Supreme Court decision that “reaffirmed the aspect of Roe v. Wade (1973) that prohibited states from disallowing abortion prior to viability.”
”The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority,” Alito’s opinion further states. “We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives.”
Alito is joined in the majority opinion by Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, Politico reports.
As for the liberal justices, Polito reports that the three members are trying to sway an additional dissent vote to tip the scale. It is currently unreported how Chief Justice John Roberts will vote in the upcoming ruling.
SCOTUSblog explained the leak in a tweet shortly after the report broke and acknowledged that while the document “is almost certainly an authentic draft opinion by J. Alito” it does not “reflect the comments or reactions of other justices.”
The document leaked to Politico is almost certainly an authentic draft opinion by J. Alito that reflects what he believes at least 5 members of the Court have voted to support — overruling Roe. But as Alito’s draft, it does not reflect the comments or reactions of other Justices.
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) May 3, 2022
The landmark abortion case will officially be ruled in June. Until then, the leaked document provides the earliest and closest look at how the justices leaned after the December hearing.
Campus Reform has also reported on legislation that impacts how abortion applies to higher education.
In March, Congresswoman Ashley Hinson (R-IA) introduced the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act, which would require colleges and universities to fully inform expecting mothers of their Title IX protections during pregnancy.
Hinson acknowledged that the bill was introduced because students are not made aware of the options available to them on campus aside from abortion. The bill cites a Centers for Disease Control study that found 27.6% of abortions in the United States are performed on college-aged women.
In Ohio, the “Born-Alive Infant Protection Act” was signed by Governor Mike DeWine in January. The law requires doctors to perform all life-saving measures on infants who survive abortion attempts.
The bill also bans physicians who are employed by a state-funded institution from working with abortion clinics. The clause aims to prevent public tax dollars from inadvertently funding abortion procedures.
Campus Reform has also reported on a number of harassment and vandalism acts done by pro-choice students against pro-life groups.
In November, a mob of pro-choice activists at the University of North Texas swarmed a pro-life vigil and disrupted the evening by screaming into megaphones and playing the drums. Obscene language was used to drown out the pro-life students, with one activist admitting to “love sacrificing children.”
This semester, a candidate for student government at the University of Houston joked that pro-lifers “should have been aborted” during a fall semester rally against the Texas Heartbeat Act enacted in September.
Also this spring, two pro-life memorials in California were vandalized by pro-choice students.
One student at Clovis Community College told Campus Reform that vandalism against pro-life campaigning is not a singular incident, but is a consistent problem on campus.
Case Western Reserve University’s student government faced backlash last fall for recognizing the pro-life group Case for Life as a registered student organization. After the vote, the editorial board of the student newspaper condemned the decision and the group by labeling it as “a danger to the student body.”
