PHOTO: Demonstrators protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court May 3, 2022 in Washington against overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion.(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
The nation had a bombshell dropped on it when an initial draft majority opinion of a Supreme Court opinion was leaked showing the court’s conservative majority is planning to overturn the landmark abortion rights case Roe v. Wade.
Politico was the first media outlet to break the news on Monday, May 2. According to the report, Politico obtained the draft, authored by Justice Samuel Alito in February, from someone familiar with the deliberations.
The draft is for the SCOTUS ruling in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, in which Mississippi is appealing against a lower court’s ruling that a 2018 law it passed that prohibits abortions after 15 weeks is unconstitutional.
“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Alito wrote in the majority opinion draft. “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled … It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
The opinion further states the court thinks it should be the state’s responsibility to determine abortion rights. This would mean if the opinion stands, abortion will be legal in some states and illegal in others to varying degrees.
The public backlash was immediate and immense with many decrying the tentative ruling. In addition to outcries from the public, many media outlets reported on the possible effects of overturning Roe vs. Wade.
If Roe is overturned, it would have an immense impact on Black Americans, whose attitudes about abortions have shifted over the last two decades.
According to a 2020 Gallup Poll that examined Black Americans’ attitudes about their legal and moral stances on abortion, 46 percent of Black Americans believed abortion was morally acceptable – up from 31 percent in 2007.
In that same survey, the number of Black Americans who believed abortion should be legal under any circumstances also increased from 24 percent in 2007 to 32 percent in 2020.
Black Americans are also more likely to have abortions, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute summarized in a New York Times report.
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Women who receive abortions “include women from all backgrounds. But the statistics show women who receive abortions in the United States are more likely to be unmarried; in their 20s; have low incomes; and already have a child. They are disproportionately likely to be Black. They are more likely to live in a Democratic-leaning state,” the Times wrote.
Justice Alito touted these statistics in his opinion. The Moguldom Nation founder Jamarlin Martin tweeted a highlight of language in the George Bush-appointed Justice’s opinion that noted Black Americans are impacted most by abortions.
“Alito writes: ‘Some such supporters have been motivated by a desire to suppress the size of the African American population,’ Alito writes. ‘It is beyond dispute that Roe has had that demographic effect. A highly disproportionate percentage of aborted fetuses are black,’” Martin tweeted.
Here are some reactions from Black Americans to the shocking leaked Supreme Court opinion to overturn Roe vs. Wade.
“Don’t tell me to respect the constitution when I had to be an amendment… twice,” Dr. Ebony Jade Hamilton tweeted.
“Since they’re now declaring that a six week fetus is a baby, shouldn’t child support start at that time as well?” @cynsmom1 wrote.
“For the f**king record. All black women are not poor & lacking access to medical care. Black women aren’t the only women getting abortions they’re in the minority in this area,” a Twitter user identified as Adrian R. Leaks tweeted. “An abortion done in a private doctors office is still a damn abortion. All types of women get abortions.”
“If Roe v Wade’s been overturned the white left can thank their patron saint Ruth Bigot Ginsburg for that,” @ProfBlacktruth wrote. “Her ego wouldn’t let her resign from the Supreme Court, so she hung in there until she died, giving Trump a super-majority on the court that he wouldn’t have had otherwise.”
“Banning abortions won’t actually stop abortions. Rich women will go elsewhere, poor women will go underground and likely die,” @BlackBernieBabe wrote.
“You can’t understand the court overturning Roe without understanding the role racism has played in the rise of the religious right and no reporter should report on this without talking about what may come next: Rulings against civil rights,” scholar and journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones wrote.
“You have a Democratic Party that for years and even many now wouldn’t even say abortion is a right,” @TheBlackLayers chimed in. “They wouldn’t even move to remove the Hyde Amendment. They wouldn’t codify roe. This is not ONLY on republicans.”
“Abortion isn’t suppressing the Black population in America. It’s the systemic & institutional racism that kills us, killing many before we are born,” @DrDooleyMD wrote. “The overpolicing, medical racism, redlining, cash bail, fracking and dirty water. Why don’t conservatives ever address these?”
“If you think being pro-life is a white supremacist stance, you should read about Margaret Sanger’s contributions to eugenics,” Congressional Candidate Willie Montague tweeted.
“Watch the Democrats try to say Black folks MUST vote for them this year so we can abort MORE Black babies. No thanks. Barbarism isn’t on the menu. Now #CutTheCheck,” ATheBlakc Channel tweeted.
“Black babies have been targeted by the abortion lobby and the Dems since day one. Don’t you dare say “Black Lives Matter” til you admit that black babies matter,” Oklahoma Senate candidate T.W. Shannon tweeted, along with a video expounding on his point.
Shannon also challenged Hannah-Jones’s statement and doubled down on his point.
PHOTO: Demonstrators protest outside of the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday, May 3, 2022 in Washington. A draft opinion suggests the U.S. Supreme Court could be poised to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide, according to a Politico report released Monday. Whatever the outcome, the Politico report represents an extremely rare breach of the court’s secretive deliberation process, and on a case of surpassing importance. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
