Democratic Candidates Opposing Ron Johnson Jump on Abortion Issue
Leaked Supreme Court draft opinion overruling Roe injects issue into US Senate race.
U.S. Supreme Court Building. Photo is in the Public Domain.
Politico reported Monday on a leaked draft opinion circulated among justices of the U.S. Supreme Court calling for overturning the Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing abortion rights.
“The immediate impact of the ruling as drafted in February would be to end a half-century guarantee of federal constitutional protection of abortion rights and allow each state to decide whether to restrict or ban abortion,” the Politico report states.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” Alito writes in the opinion, the full text of which is embedded in the Politico story. “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
“If this reporting is true, this very well could be Democrats’ last warning before the Supreme Court strips reproductive rights from millions of Americans,” Sarah Godlewski, Wisconsin’s state treasurer who is seeking the Democratic nomination to run for Senate, said in a statement from her campaign. “We have had almost 50 years to codify Roe into law, we can’t afford to wait one more day. The Senate needs to end the filibuster, codify Roe, and defend reproductive freedom — Democrats need to act now.”
“The Supreme Court has shown their hand. Senator Chuck Schumer must call a special session to blow up the filibuster and codify Roe now,” Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson, another candidate in Wisconsin’s Senate primary, stated.
“Right this very minute, Senate Democrats need to show urgency,” Senate hopeful Alex Lasry, an executive on leave from the Milwaukee Bucks, said in a statement. “We must overturn the filibuster in order to protect the fabric and freedom of all Americans. Outlawing abortion harms women across the country and will tear families apart. When I’m elected in November, I’ll fight like hell with everything I have to make sure access to safe and legal abortion in available in Wisconsin and nationwide.”
In 2021, Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson joined 43 of his Senate Republican colleagues who signed an amicus brief in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that urged the court to uphold Mississippi’s law that banned abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Johnson, a longtime opponent of Roe, has said that regulating abortion should be up to the states and if individuals don’t like the abortion laws in their state, they “can move.”
Wisconsin has a total abortion ban on the books that criminalizes abortion, written more than 150 years ago. That law could go back into effect if Roe is overturned.
But, “A person familiar with the court’s deliberations said that four of the other Republican-appointed justices — Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — had voted with Alito in the conference held among the justices after hearing oral arguments in December, and that line-up remains unchanged as of this week,” Politico reports. “The three Democratic-appointed justices — Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — are working on one or more dissents, according to the person. How Chief Justice John Roberts will ultimately vote, and whether he will join an already written opinion or draft his own, is unclear.”
The Court is expected to issue a final decision within the next two months.
Draft U.S. Supreme Court decision overturns Roe v. Wade was originally published by the Wisconsin Examiner.
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The “Freedom Of Choice Act” , more or less codifying Roe v.Wade, has been kicked around Congress for some time (since 1989 I believe). In Clinton’s first year, 1993, with a Democratic Senate (57-43) and Democratic House (254-175) it never even got to the House floor for a vote.
In a speech given to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund on July 17, 2007, Obama declared, “The first thing I’d do, as president, is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That’s the first thing that I’d do.” In 2009, as President, Obama stated that the FOCA was “not highest legislative priority”. I’m sure Biden will talk on the campaign trail about having to elect Democrats in 2022 so that they can get to work on this issue but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
The first rule for all Republican, and some Democrats, on getting something done in Congress; “Do my wealthy corporate donors approve of this action?” If the answer is no, forget about it, voters be damned.