OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
President Joe Biden’s White House is reportedly looking at a series of potential executive orders that would serve as workarounds to an expected ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion in all states.
In particular, the administration wants to try and ensure that women living in GOP-controlled states that will likely end or dramatically curtail the procedure still have access to abortion, The New York Times reported.
“Some of the ideas being discussed include getting the Justice Department ready to fight against any move by the GOP states to criminalize travel for obtaining abortions and announcing that Food and Drug Administration regulations granting approval to abortion medications override any state attempts to outlaw them,” Newsmax added, citing the Times.
However, the outlet said, should the justices rule to overturn Roe, it could not be constitutionally reinstated by executive order.
“Studying the possible legal ramifications of any executive orders on abortions are White House counsel Dana Remus, the director of the gender policy council Jennifer Klein, and the director of the White House domestic policy council Susan Rice,” Newsmax added.
The Times reported that the high court’s decision is expected in about two weeks, though it could also come at any time.
“We are at a crisis moment for abortion access in this country, and officials at all levels of government must respond — including the executive branch,” Marya Torrez, senior director of policy development and strategy at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, claimed.
There was another crisis related to this case as well: The unprecedented leak of the draft opinion in the first place.
Written by Justice Samuel Alito in February, the draft was leaked to Politico, which 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.”
“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Alito writes.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” he writes in the document, labeled as the “Opinion of the Court.” “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
“We, therefore, hold the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives,” Alito noted in the document — later verified as genuine by Chief Justice John Roberts — which was labeled an “Opinion of the Court.”
As to when the official ruling will be released, Roberts is taking heat for refusing to do so sooner rather than later, and is now being accused of putting fellow justices’ lives in danger.
The Federalist notes:
Since the infamous leak of the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) draft majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization last month, Americans have waited with bated breath for the high court to issue its verdict on the constitutionality of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which federally legalized abortion in the United States.
After the Dobbs draft opinion was released, Chief Justice John Roberts announced the launch of an investigation to find the individual who leaked the majority opinion to Politico. Not only has Roberts’ investigation cataclysmically failed to out the leaker and hold this person accountable for his or her actions a month later, the chief justice’s continued withholding of the Dobbs decision has concurrently endangered the lives of his colleagues.
Federalist CEO Sean Davis has said that Roberts “could issue Dobbs today and eliminate threats of violence to prevent its release,” but is instead “deliberately doing nothing.”
“What conclusions can be drawn other than that Roberts is fine with what the leak has wrought, and that he’s fine with the prospect of violence and assassinations precluding the release of a Dobbs release overturning Roe v. Wade?” Davis added on Twitter.
