Roe v Wade news – live: Biden vows action to protect abortion rights as John Roberts confirms leaked opinion
Leading Democrats have condemned the reported decision of the US Supreme Court to overturn the Roe v Wade ruling that legalised abortion nationwide nearly 50 years ago. Chief Justice John Roberts confirmed that the leaked draft was authentic, as President Joe Biden vowed to fight the court’s imminent decision.
Congressional Democratic leadership said the Republican-appointed justices who reportedly endorsed Justioce Samuel Alito’s opinion were “poised to inflict the greatest restriction of rights in the past 50 years,” as abortion rights
The decision indicates that the Supreme Court’s conservative majority will uphold a Mississippi law criminalising abortion care at 15 weeks of pregnancy, in the case of Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organisation, and overrule precedents established in Roe and affirmed by the 1993 decision in Casey v Planned Parenthood.
Republican officials have meanwhile celebrated the likely demise of Roe while condemning the “leak” from the nation’s high court.
