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Leaked Supreme Court opinion suggests court may overturn Roe v. Wade
FOX News
Millions of Americans are reacting this morning after the reported overturning of the landmark case Roe v Wade.
A leaked draft has shown that five justices have decided to allow states to outlaw abortion. It’s also expected that the US Supreme Court will uphold a Mississippi law which criminalises termination of a pregnancy after 15 weeks.
The hugely significant ruling will challenge the implications of the 1973 ruling in Roe v Wade, which ensured constitutional protections for the procedure.
The draft opinion, which was first reported by Politico, appears to have been authored by Justice Samuel Alito.
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The draft is dated on February 10 and indicates that he, Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett all voted to overturn Roe and Casey after hearing oral arguments in the case of Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” he wrote. “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives”.
The reported ruling has set social media alight with discussion, and it’s caused The Handmaid’s Tale to trend on Twitter.
Protestors on both side of the argument have been out in forceStefani Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images
Many are now referncing the themes of Margaret Atwood’s hugely influential novel after the news broke, which is set in a patriarchal and totalitarian future and focuses on the lives of subjugated women.
It tells the story of the “handmaids” who are forced to produce children for the ruling class of men, with the 1985 novel having been turned into a hugely popular series starring Elisabeth Moss in 2017.
One social media user wrote: “I liked The Handmaid’s Tale better when it was a work of fiction.”
Another added: “Leaked draft Supreme Court decision would overturn Roe. Gawd help us of this is true. Handmaid’s Tale in 2022!”
One more added: “Margaret Atwood has always said that she didn’t put anything in The Handmaid’s Tale that human beings hadn’t already done, in some time or place, in Western society, in the “Christian” tradition. She didn’t make that shit up. That was not the fiction.”
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