Former White House Press Secretary and Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders took to Twitter on Friday to celebrate the United States Supreme Court's decision on overturning Roe v. Wade, particularly citing the braveness of the justices to fight for life amidst the heightened threats to their lives over the past weeks due to the draft opinion that leaked in May.
"For decades, this is a day so many of us have prayed for and worked towards. I am thankful for the brave resolve of the six justices who--while receiving death threats and extreme political pressure--did what is right: defending the lives of the most innocent and vulnerable," Sanders said.
Threatened Supreme Court Justices
Sanders raised that Americans value the sanctity of life, which is the reason why it has become very natural for citizens to protect it. The governor cited her experience as a mother and emphasized that her children brought love to her family. She went on to pledge to make Arkansas one of the most pro-life states in the United States.
Many Netizens similarly commended the justices for their courage and even pointed to the need to continue praying for the security of the justices, particularly those who were named in the majority opinion. These were the same justices in the draft opinion leaked by Politico to the public on May 2, which in turn brought an onslaught of threats on them.
Pro-choice activists and abortion providers not only held nationwide rallies but even held protests outside the homes of Associate Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch in May. The threats heightened this month when 26-year-old Nicholas John Roske went to Kavanaugh's Maryland home and attempted to kill the justice.
This coincided with Barrett being targeted by abortion extremist Ruth Sent Us who published on social media the justice's daily routine and residential address, along with the other justices. Being the lone woman among the justices who sided on overturning Roe v. Wade, Barrett was singled out by Rise Up For Abortion Rights as "women-hating fascists" when they protested outside her home last June 18 and called others to join on June 21.
The Majority Opinion That Upheld The Constitution
The majority opinion released on Friday was, however, not identical to the 98-paged leaked draft opinion being 19 pages shorter. But it similarly was written by Alito on behalf of the other justices and concluded the same: to overturn Roe v. Wade, which had no constitutional basis.
Also Read: Supreme Court's Abortion Ruling God's Decision, Trump Says
"We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely-the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment," Alito said.
Alito explained that the said provision guarantees rights that the Constitution did not mention. But such rights pertain to those deeply rooted in the history and tradition of the country and aligns with the concept of ordered liberty. He elaborated that the right to abortion does not fall under this category.
In conclusion, Alito higlighted that the issue of abortion revolves around a profound moral question. The judge pointed out that Roe and Casey arrogated the authority of the citizens of each state to regulate or prohibit abortion, which they have decided to overrule. He declared that the court now returns the authority to citizens and their elected state representatives to decide on the matter. He cleared that the decision of the Fifth Circuit on the Mississippi law has been reversed and the case is remanded for the said court to continue proceedings on it in line with their majority decision.
According to the SCOTUSblog, Friday's majority decision on the vote to overturn Roe v. Wade was 5-4. Chief Justice John Roberts agreed with the majority that the Mississippi 15-week ban on abortion should be upheld but disagreed in overturning Roe, making his vote a 6th on the side of life. While liberal Justices Stephen Bryer, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor opposed overturning Roe through a joint dissent. The dissenting justices raised that the majority opinion violated women's autonomy, jeopardized other constitutional rights, and would even harm the court's legitimacy.
The decision also automatically implements the Gestational Age Act of Mississippi, which was reviewed by the Supreme Court in line with the constitutionality of states to ban abortions beyond 15 weeks of pregnancy. But the SCOTUSblog underscored that the majority opinion goes far beyond Mississippi's law since it renounced not only Roe but also Casey v. Planned Parenthood, which has been one of the cases relied on for decades on legal decisions regarding abortions.
The decision now permits states to implement abortion laws far more restrictive than before or vice versa. Before the draft leak, around half of the country or roughly 26 states have been estimated to ban all or nearly all abortions once Roe v. Wade is overturned.
Moreover, the official decision to overturn Roe v. Wade ends 49 years of legal abortion on demand, which has caused the death of more than 60 million unborn children in the United States since 1973 and led to 73 million abortions globally every year from 2015 to 2019, the Guttmacher Institute said. A data that is far more striking than the 6.3 million COVID-19 worldwide deaths in the last two years of the pandemic.
Related Article: Prayers For Supreme Court Justices Sought After Draft Overturning Roe Leaked
