South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) is making a vow after a report about a leaked Supreme Court opinion came out showing the highest court in the land poised to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision.
She is making a pledge to “save” the lives of the unborn.
“If this report is true and Roe v. Wade is overturned, I will immediately call for a special session to save lives and guarantee that every unborn child has a right to life in South Dakota,” Noem tweeted on Monday evening.
Check out the post below:
If this report is true and Roe v. Wade is overturned, I will immediately call for a special session to save lives and guarantee that every unborn child has a right to life in South Dakota. https://t.co/oIiGibCP7B
— Governor Kristi Noem (@govkristinoem) May 3, 2022
The alleged draft of the Supreme Court opinion was first reported by Politico.
The “initial draft majority opinion” written by Justice Samuel Alito is “a full-throated, unflinching repudiation of the 1973 decision which guaranteed federal constitutional protections of abortion rights and a subsequent 1992 decision – Planned Parenthood v. Casey – that largely maintained the right,” the outlet writes.
Alito writes, “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start.”
In the document, he also writes:
“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….”
As Politico reports, “No draft decision in the modern history of the court has been disclosed publicly while a case was still pending. The unprecedented revelation is bound to intensify the debate over what was already the most controversial case on the docket this term.”
Per the outlet, Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett voted with Alito.
Meanwhile, the three Democratic-appointed justices are reportedly “working on one or more dissents,” and how Chief Justice John Roberts will vote is unclear.
If Roe v. Wade is overturned, states could still allow abortions. However, roughly half of states would be expected to “immediately” impose stricter limits on abortion access.