what is one of the most contentious
issues in u.s politics the right to
legal abortion across all 50 states now
that right has been guaranteed by law
since the 1973 roe v wade ruling and now
it looks like that right may soon be
removed a draft majority decision by
judge alito has been leaked to politico
and it's as it stands it means the end
of roe v wade the supreme court chief
justice has confirmed the authenticity
of the document saying it's not a final
draft an investigation into the leak has
been opened but the results of the leak
are already explosive
the bombshell leak set off a fireball of
fueling the u.s capital as pro-choice
protesters gathered outside the supreme
court
they are not going to get away with this
let me say that i don't care what i have
to do but they're not going to do this
to d.c
and they are not going to do this to
america there's more of us than it is of
them and we are going to fight
though only a draft it's as strong as
evidence yet that a majority of the
supreme court is preparing to overturn
the right to abortion
a right established nearly half a
century ago in the 1973 landmark ruling
roe v wade
the opinion penned by justice samuel
alito and backed by other conservative
justices goes further than many expected
the 98 page long document cults row
egregiously wrong from the start and
will leave the fate of a woman's right
to choose in the hands of lawmakers in
individual states
for anti-abortion activists it would
mark a victory decades in the making
made possible by president donald trump
whose three appointments to the supreme
court tilted the balance in
conservatives favor
but for millions of women the ruling
would come at a high cost
as many segan and abortion would have to
travel to other states to get one
a tall critics say would hit those
already struggling emotionally and
financially the hardest
currently 26 of 50 states are set to ban
or restrict abortion
many worry it would deepen the divide in
an already polarized country
with democrats predicted to lose control
of congress in the midterm elections
this november progressive lawmakers are
calling on the party to fight back
before it's too late
in a tweet senator bernie sanders urged
his colleagues to pass legislation
securing the right to abortion
with the controversial issue not all for
sure to dominate the coming months
america could be headed for a highly
divisive midterm election
and for more on this i'm delighted to
welcome carol sanger she's a professor
at columbia law and a scholar of
reproductive rights her most recent book
on the subject about abortion
terminating pregnancy in the 21st
century
thank you so much for taking the time to
join us on the day professor if the
court does indeed overturn roe v wade
can you tell us how immediate the impact
would be on americans ability to access
an abortion
well the impact will be almost
immediately it will be an immediate
impact because so many of the states who
that oppose abortion have already
enacted the legislation they mean
need to criminalize it so they passed
these laws called trigger laws
nice american name which suggests that
um the minute right they would say that
the minute row is overturned it triggers
the automatic enactment of the uh
criminalization of abortion so it will
be
immediate and um some of the states had
never repealed their criminal abortion
laws from 19 from the 1970s
so everybody uh on the on the
against side is
rearing and pretty ready to go
so with those 1970 laws also then
presumably be in effect as soon as this
was overturned
um unless they were repealed and a
number of them were not repealed
so we have the trigger laws that were
enacted after roe we have the laws that
were in effect before row and um
the law will go into effect and probably
more uh
pertinent for
for women will also be the fact that
clinics will close
because doctors are not going to risk
their licenses they're not going to be
performing illegal procedures so it's
two effects one is the legal uh
consequence and the other is the
practical or actual
so that's not going to be in all u.s
states though is it
no it's not it looks like it's split
about half half right now but it is up
to each state to make a decision and
there are probably 10 states who have
already decided they support legal
abortion and the way they've gone about
that is by amending their state
constitutions
so that um there's a privacy clause or
something or other language which which
makes clear that
abortion is a respected and acknowledged
right in that state
so states can do that you can have a
constitutional state right to abortion
so for people who are living in states
that do outlaw will it will it then be
possible to travel to likely more
liberal states which have put these into
place um to seek an abortion
yes it will and they won't be
they won't be um
necessarily adjacent
to one another
um
but they'll be
the you can you can travel there will
certainly be states who pass legislation
saying you can't travel from an
illegal state to a legal state to try to
ban women from doing that but those will
be approached in um
those will be appealed to courts and i
think will be unsuccessful because in
the us we also still have a right to
travel from state to state that's part
of our federal
due as citizens of the united states
okay but that's something we can expect
to be see we can expect to potentially
see um be played out before the courts i
want to ask you roe v wade um held that
the right to privacy includes decisions
about abortion but are there other parts
of the constitution that could protect
the right to abortion uh should roe be
overturned as is looking likely
well there might have been had privacy
not been the
um
the theory that that was used by
advocates in the early 1970s because
clearly the alito decision tears down
privacy in every way that it can and
says privacy is not in the constitution
privacy wouldn't cover abortion even if
it was i mean it really
makes it impossible to use privacy as a
basis and other
advocates including justice ruth
ginsburg thought that privacy was an
iffy approach anyway
she predicted some of the problems with
privacy which is
anyway and um
and she thought that a better ground was
sex equality and that if you look
carefully at what bans on abortion do
what their real harm is
it is it is an invasion of one's privacy
to make an intimate decision but it's
also
on a very different theory treating men
and women differently
uh based on on sexual conduct that women
are still assigned the stereotypical
role of mothers and with an abortion ban
coerced motherhood or involuntary
motherhood where men face nothing like
that
in the us
because
was based on privacy though i mean the
implications of this decision though
will be about more than just abortion uh
won't they if it's based on privacy what
about other rights um based on that
presumption like
same-sex marriage or even access to
contraception
yes the language in row about privacy
and about intimate decision making came
straight out of a case from the 1960s
called griswold versus connecticut where
connecticut had banned
the use of contraception by anybody
including married couples so a married
couple sued to say it was
unconstitutional and the court the
supreme court then said you're right it
is we believe married marriage is a
sacred institution and that the state
should not be intruding into the marital
bedroom to see if people are using
contraception or not and that language
that and based on privacy and that
language was wholly transposed over to
roe v wade so the thought is if roe goes
down maybe you have to rewind the whole
thing and pra and contraception will be
taken away there's also we'll worry
about same-sex relationships
um
same-sex marriage
um so it's
this all remains to be seen although
judge alito said no no those are
different don't worry you
just because we're we're knocking out
abortion doesn't mean we'd knock out
contraception and his reason is because
there's no fetus involved in
um
contraception
but there are children involved in
contraception or the idea of children
and the same with marriage so i don't
know that his
it's not exactly a pledge but his um
suggestion that those other subjects
won't be touched i i'm
i'm not banking on it all right we will
be keeping an eye on that in the weeks
and months to come professor carol
sanger at columbia law i want to thank
you again so much for joining us on the
day
you're welcome
you