California politicians are ripping into a U.S. Supreme Court draft majority opinion obtained by POLITICO of a ruling that would overturn Roe v. Wade.
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The opinion, written by Republican-appointed Justice Samuel Alito, drew the ire of liberal lawmakers within the state shortly after POLITICO published it on Monday night.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement that the draft opinion, which POLITICO reported at least four other Republican-appointed justices are in line to support, is "an appalling attack on the rights of women across this country" that could "destroy lives and put countless women in danger."
"This is not an isolated incident, and it is not the end," Newsom said in a statement. "We have a Supreme Court that does not value the rights of women, and a political minority that will stop at nothing to take those rights away. This won't stop with choice and the right to privacy. They are undermining progress, and erasing the civil protections and rights so many have fought for over the last half century."
The Public Policy Institute of California found last October that 77% of adults in the state – including 59% of Republicans – oppose overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion across the country.
Newsom, who in March signed into law a bill prohibiting out-of-pocket costs for abortion-related services, added he was "furious my own daughters and sons could grow up in an America that is less free than the one they were born into."
"We have to wake up," Newsom said. "We have to fight like hell. We will not be silenced."
Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla called for congressional action in a tweet on Monday.
The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives voted in February to pass H.R. 3755, otherwise known as the Women's Health Protection Act of 2021, which seeks to "protect a person's ability to determine whether to continue or end a pregnancy, and to protect a health care provider’s ability to provide abortion services."
The bill is unlikely to pass the 50-50 Senate, where it would need 60 yes votes under the body's filibuster rule. Forty-six Senators voted in favor of the legislation in February, with three Democrats absent and West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin voting against it. Manchin opposes abolishing the filibuster.
California State Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat, said California "will fight hard to expand abortion access, here and in other states."
"California unequivocally stands for the right to an abortion, no matter what the right-wing zealots on the Supreme Court say," Wiener said in a statement.
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