WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden on Tuesday criticised as “radical” a draft US Supreme Court decision that would overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalised abortion nationwide, a bombshell that was denounced by Democrats and stunned even some moderate Republicans.
The court confirmed that the text, published late on Monday by the news outlet Politico, was authentic but said it did not represent the final decision of the justices, which is due by the end of June. Democrats scrambled to plan a response to the news that a half-century of abortion access for American women could come to an end.
“It’s a fundamental shift in American jurisprudence,” Biden said, arguing that such a ruling would call into question other rights including same-sex marriage, which the court recognised in 2015.