Biden says he will protect ‘fundamental’ right to abortion after leaked Supreme Court draft appearing to overturn Roe v. Wade

Biden said he’d seek to enshrine the protections of Roe v. Wade into US law, following a report the Supreme Court is poised to overturn the landmark ruling

Politico reported on Monday it obtained a draft majority opinion of justices that would strike down the 1973 ruling which protects a woman’s right to abortion

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President Joe Biden speaks on the White House Campus in Washington in January. Photo: AP

Published: 10:48pm, 3 May 2022Updated: 11:56pm, 3 May 2022

US President Joe Biden urged the election of more lawmakers who support abortion rights and said he’d seek to enshrine the protections of Roe v. Wade into US law, following a report that the Supreme Court is poised to overturn the landmark ruling.

“I believe that a woman’s right to choose is fundamental,” Biden said in a statement, adding that if the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling legalising abortion is overturned, elected officials will need to protect a woman’s right to choose and voters should elect abortion rights candidates in November.

However, if the document proves to be authentic, abortion laws will depend on individual states and “it will fall on voters to elect” officials who back the right to the procedure in November’s midterm elections, Biden said in a statement.

A crowd of people gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, DC on Monday. A draft opinion circulated among Supreme Court justices suggests that earlier this year a majority of them had thrown support behind overturning the 1973 case Roe v. Wade that legalised abortion nationwide, according to a report published Monday night in Politico. Photo: AP

Biden also called on Congress to enshrine legal abortion in US law, which would be the only way of overcoming the Supreme Court ruling that the leaked document apparently shows is set to be issued.

Biden said he would “work to pass and sign into law” such legislation but acknowledged the reality that the conditions are not right with today’s evenly divided Senate between his Democrats and Republicans.

“At the federal level, we will need more pro-choice senators and a pro-choice majority in the House to adopt legislation” that codifies the existing guarantees apparently set to be removed by the Supreme Court.

With many US states already enacting or preparing highly restrictive abortion laws, Biden said he had ordered advisers to study “a variety of possible outcomes in the cases pending before the Supreme Court. We will be ready when any ruling is issued”.