For or against? Where the US Supreme Court justices stand on Roe vs wade
1. ASSOCIATE JUSTICE BRETT KAVANAUGH
At his confirmation hearing in 2018, Justice Kavanaugh called a woman’s right to an abortion “settled law”. However, the Trump-nominated 57-year-old has supported abortion restrictions in the past and was part of the majority on this draft opinion.
2. ASSOCIATE JUSTICE ELENA KAGAN
Justice Kagan, nominated by Barack Obama in 2010, has repeatedly voted in favour of abortion rights. The 62-year-old is also arguably the most consistent voice in the Supreme Court, arguing for the importance of adhering to precedents.
3. ASSOCIATE JUSTICE NEIL M GORSUCH
The Trump-nominated 54-year-old from Colorado has one of the shortest records on abortion of all the justices, but was in the majority allowing Texas’s restrictive abortion law to take effect this year.
4. ASSOCIATE JUSTICE AMY CONEY BARRETT
The 50-year-old Trump-nominated justice was a member of a “right to life” organisation in Indiana, and in 2006 signed a newspaper advertisement that supported overturning the “barbaric legacy” of Roe.
5. ASSOCIATE JUSTICE SAMUEL A ALITO JR
Author of the leaked draft opinion, the 72-year-old, who was nominated to the Supreme Court by George W Bush in 2006 said that the 1973 Roe v Wade decision was “egregiously wrong from the start”.
6. ASSOCIATE JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS
The longest serving member of the court, Justice Thomas said as far back as 1992 that Roe was “plainly wrong” and “should be overruled.” The 73-year-old, who was hospitalised with an infection in March, was nominated by George H W Bush in 1991.
7. CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN G ROBERTS JR
How Justice Roberts will vote is currently unclear. The 67-year-old, nominated by George W Bush in 2005 was in the majority when the court upheld a federal law banning an abortion procedure in 2007 but has recently voted in favour of some abortion rights.
8. ASSOCIATE JUSTICE STEPHEN G BREYER
The 83-year-old was nominated to the Supreme Court in 1994 by Bill Clinton and will retire this summer. He has been a longtime supporter of abortion rights. “The case of Roe v Wade has been the law for 21 years or more. That is the law,” he said at his confirmation hearing.
9. ASSOCIATE JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR
The 67-year-old became just the third ever female justice when nominated by Barack Obama in 2009. She has voted repeatedly in favour of abortion rights since then.