Leak of draft ignites abortion debate
State GOP Chair Burton Brown and Hanks call for source of leak to be identified, punished; U.S. Sen. Hickenlooper terms court’s opinion ‘deeply flawed’
A leaked draft opinion this week from the U.S. Supreme Court unveiled what Democrats presumably already had concluded – the nearly five-decade old Roe v. Wade decision could be in jeopardy with a conservative-leaning court.
The 1973 court decision ruled in favor of a woman’s right to elect abortion, and since then Republicans and Democrats have been divided on the issue. Democrats have tended toward few or no limitations on abortion, and Republicans tend toward greatly restrictive or entire prohibition of abortion.
The Colorado legislature this year passed the Reproductive Health Equity Act, signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis, broadening and strengthening the state’s pro-abortion law, a measure Republicans have deemed as extreme. Majority parties in both blue and red states in recent years have passed legislation related to abortion, one from Mississippi which led to the Supreme Court draft opinion.
“Overturning (Roe v. Wade) would drag us into a past when women faced horrific risks to their lives because they lacked the freedom to make their own health care choices,” U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Denver, tweeted. “We must protect the right to choose by codifying it in law.”
The leaked draft opinion, widely presumed to be authentic and written by Justice Samuel Alito, details the majority support for overturning the 1973 decision. The source of the leak remains unclear. The court found by a 7-2 majority in 1973 the 14th Amendment guarantees the right of women to elect an abortion through the due process clause.
“If this report is true, then countless lives have been saved. Like the majority of Americans, Republicans believe that every single life is precious and that every child is worth saving,” Colorado Republican Party Chairwoman Kristi Burton Brown said in a statement. “Equal rights are not equal until they extend to every human being. I pray that the Supreme Court releases an official decision that recog
nizes that fact. We must all choose to keep working until every child is protected, every woman is supported, and every family is strong.”
The right of choice is worth defending, U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Denver, wrote in a tweet: “The Supreme Court’s leaked opinion is deeply flawed. Reproductive freedom shouldn’t be up for debate. Yet the court is on the brink of reversing abortion rights for millions. Now more than ever, we need to fight for the right to choose.”
Gov. Jared Polis added in a tweet: “While states like Texas, Florida and Arizona are engaging in the unwelcome intrusion of government into deeply personal and religious decisions, Colorado remains a refuge where individual rights are respected.”
U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, R-Windsor, who practiced as an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Colorado district before serving as Weld County district attorney, supports the Supreme Court’s draft opinion.
“Roe v. Wade was a mistake. The Supreme Court tried to legislate on a difficult moral issue to unify the country and failed miserably,” Buck said. “The draft opinion is a victory for mothers, babies, and federalism. We are very close to a day when the power to decide this vital moral question will be where it belongs: with the people. This opinion should be the court’s final ruling on the issue.”
The two Republican candidates vying to challenge Bennet in the general election have each weighed in on the abortion issue.
“Most Americans who were intellectually honest when looking at both the Roe and Casey decisions knew they were both based on flimsy legal precedent and would eventually be overturned by an originalist-majority court,” U.S. Senate candidate Ron Hanks wrote in a Tweet.
He was a sponsor of House Bill 22-1079, which would have abolished abortion in Colorado, and instructed the state to disregard Roe v. Wade.
U.S. Senate candidate
Joe O’Dea has opposed the Reproductive Health Equity Act as reckless. He’s expressed his opposition to law which he says would allow third-term abortion, but has also said he wouldn’t attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade. If the decision were to be overturned, O’Dea has said it would leave the abortion issue to the states, such as it stood prior to 1973.
“Ron Hanks and Joe O’Dea are enemies of abortion rights – and their extreme, anti-choice views go against the majority of Coloradans and disqualifies them from serving in the U.S. Senate,” Colorado Democratic Party Communications Advisor Nico Delgado wrote in an email.
An Associated PressNORC Center for Public Affairs poll found in 2021 that 65% of Americans opposed abortion in the second trimester and 80% in the third trimester, while 61% supported abortion in the first trimester. Forty-three percent of respondents to the poll opposed abortion in all or most cases. In a Marist poll, 71% of Americans supported abortion only being allowed in the first trimester, with 21% either opposed entirely to abortion or only permitted when needed to save the life of the mother. A Washington Post/ABC News poll found 54% of Americans would support upholding the Roe v. Wade decision.
Hanks, who attended the Jan. 6, 2021, election-integrity gathering in Washington, D.C., also contends the source of the draft opinion leak should be dealt with in a manner similar to some of those who protested election certification that day.
“That leaker should be found, tried and then convicted of an insurrection against our government,” Hanks wrote on Twitter. “That leaker is the greatest threat to our American legal system that we have seen in the history of our nation. The real story today is the unimaginable leak by an anti-American insurgent within our highest court, designed to create pressure on five reasonable justices who believe in states’ rights, rights the correctly-interpreted Constitution grants them.”
Generally, draft opinions are held to be confidential by the Supreme Court. Some have theorized the leak is the first of a draft opinion in the court’s history.
As Hanks intimates, many on the political right find abortion to be an issue best left to the states by the 10th Amendment, which guarantees all rights not explicitly given to the federal government by the U.S. Constitution to be those of the state.
“I also want to be clear that this leak was a blatant act of sabotage aimed at bullying Supreme Court justices and undermining the legitimacy of the court,” said Burton
Brown, a constitutional law attorney. “While we pray for the safety of the justices, the full power of the government should also be used to get to the bottom of this leak and hold the individual responsible.”
Republican candidates for governor have also weighed in on their preference toward abortion. Governor candidate Heidi Ganahl, the only statewide elected Republican in her capacity as University of Colorado regent, had encouraged Polis not to sign the Reproductive Health Equity Act and has suggested the issue of abortion should be decided by voters. Governor candidate Greg Lopez, the leading vote-getter at the Republican Assembly, has promised to veto the Reproductive Health Equity Act as governor and many times has indicated his pro-life support.
“Coloradans have voted over and over again to protect abortion rights, and these extreme, farright candidates will never find footing in Colorado as long as they oppose the right to choose,” said Colorado Democratic Party spokesperson Kailee Stiles.