Well, really no one should be surprised that the Supreme Court is poised to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision, or that Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch (all Trump appointees) are voting with the majority.
The surprise is that this “draft opinion” was leaked ahead of time.
Look for right wingers to make a big deal out of the leak, to try to deflect attention from what is actually going on to how the leak is wrong.
And the leak is wrong. It is unprecedented, and it sets a bad example going forward.
But it’s pretty clear why it was leaked now: so that it could have a political impact now, in the middle of primary season, where it could significantly motivate the Democratic base.
We don’t know who leaked the document, but it was likely either a law clerk for the Supreme Court, or someone close to a law clerk for the Supreme Court, who would have had access to the draft. The leak was made to Politico, who published it right away. You can read the draft opinion, authored by Justice Samuel Alito, here.
Overturning Roe has been, of course, the fever dream of the American right and the anti-abortion movement. Donald Trump — who has been pro-choice most of his life — enabled this fever dream by placing three justices on the Supreme Court. He was able to do that because of the enormous and unapologetic hypocrisy of former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Now conservatives may have to live by the maxim “be careful what you wish for, as it may come true.” A lot of things have changed in the 49 years since Roe was decided, and we’re now headed for a United States in which there will be dramatically different abortion laws in the 50 states. For women with resources, abortion will still be available, although in many cases much more difficult to obtain. For women without resources in Red states? Well, they get fucked again.
Should be interesting to see how this plays out in the next few weeks. The “final” decision probably won’t be issued until mid June, although there is no firm deadline.
