Biden says he will protect 'a woman's right to choose' if Supreme Court overturns legal abortion

US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday (3) that a woman’s “right to choose” must be guaranteed if the country’s Supreme Court overturns the law allowing legal abortion.

On Monday (2), Politico obtained a preliminary, not yet officially released, version of a draft report showing that the justices of the United States Supreme Court voted, in a reserved manner, To repeal the 1970s decision guaranteeing access to abortion in the country.

Protests outside the US Supreme Court. Photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

This action has historically been known as “Roe v. Wade,” referring to the alias of the plaintiff, a pregnant single mother, and the attorney general she was resisting.

“I believe that a woman’s right to decide (whether or not to continue a pregnancy) is fundamental,” the US president said in a statement. “My administration has always argued vigorously in defending (resolution) Roe v. Wade.”

Biden called for Roe v. Wade to support and warned the Supreme Court that it would “let down voters” otherwise.

Biden said he does not yet know whether the leaked draft is “real” or reflects the Supreme Court’s final decision and that “basic justice” is calling for the current pro-abortion ruling not to be reversed.

The decision known as “Roe v. Wade” was passed on January 22, 1973 by the Supreme Court and stated that the right to respect for private life guaranteed by the Constitution applied to abortion.

In a lawsuit filed three years earlier in a Texas court, Jane Roe, better known as Norma McCorvey, a single mother who is pregnant for the third time, attacked the constitutionality of a Texas law that makes abortion a crime.

The matter was taken up by the nation’s highest court months later, in an appeal by Jane Roe against Dallas Attorney General Henry Wade, but also in another suit brought by a doctor and a childless couple who wanted to be able to practice or submit to a voluntary termination. of pregnancy legally.

After hearing the parties twice, the Supreme Court waited for the November 1972 presidential election and the re-election of Republican Richard Nixon to issue its decision, by seven votes to two.

Recognizing “the sensitive and emotional nature of the abortion debate, the sharply opposing opinions, including among physicians, and the deep and absolute convictions that this issue raises,” the Supreme Court eventually struck down Texas’ abortion laws.