On May 2, 2022, a bomb went off in the United States of America. A 15-year-old news publication published a ‘scoop’ that has since become the only thing the US is (heatedly) talking about. Back in India, it’s likely you missed the news. It doesn’t impact us one bit and doesn’t really have a bearing on New Delhi’s relationship with Washington.
However, if you are somebody who likes to track upheavals in society and are interested in the perennial encounters between conservatism and liberalism, it’s a news item you must know about. Here’s what you need to know.
WHAT HAPPENED?
On May 2, 2022, a relatively young US news publication, Politicopublished a ‘leaked’ draft of a United States Supreme Court opinion that seemed set to overturn a nearly four-decade-old judgment allowing women the right to choose to have an abortion.
To be clear, the ‘leak’ was of a draft. The actual verdict of the US Supreme Court is expected later in June or July. However, according to Politico‘s reporting, the draft carried the support of five out of the US Supreme Court’s nine justices, indicating that the court was in favor of effectively banning abortions across the country.
THE LEAK
To say that the leaked Supreme Court draft sent shockwaves through the United States would be an understanding. The leaked draft on abortion has elicited responses from officials as high as the President of the United States. Why is this so? There are two reasons.
The first is the leak itself. Can you recall a single instance of a judgment (or its draft) of the Indian Supreme Court being published in the media before it was pronounced by the court? So unsurprisingly, commentators in the US are calling this unprecedented and something that can create trust issues between the country’s top judges — everybody, after all, will be wondering who or whose staff may have leaked the draft judgment.
ABORTION
The second is the issue at hand: abortion. Abortion in the United States is a deeply emotional topic. The debate over whether or not a woman should have the right to choose to have an abortion has a significant religious element to it and is deeply entwined with the country’s politics.
Politicians in the US can end up winning or losing elections on the basis of the stand they take on abortion alone. To draw a crude parallel, abortion in the US is akin to the Ram Mandir issue in India.
IMAGINE THIS
In November 2019, the Indian Supreme Court ruled that the disputed site in Ayodhya where Hindus believe Lord Ram was born and where the Babri Masjid once stood should be handed over to a trust. That trust would be tasked with the construction of a Ram Temple at the site, the court ruled.
Now imagine 40 years from now, a different Supreme Court bench chooses to overturn the 2019 judgement, calling the verdict “egregiously wrong” (words used in the leaked US Supreme Court draft to describe the older judgment allowing abortions).
Roe [verdict allowing abortions] was egregiously wrong from the start… It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives
– Leaked draft of US Supreme Court opinion published by Politico
Imagine the firestorm that would erupt in the country. Imagine the debates — religious and political — such a judgment would spark. That’s exactly what happened in the United States.
ABORTION IN THE UNITED STATES
No issue perhaps separates US conservatives from US liberals as sharply as abortion does. Conservatives recite the Catholic Church’s teaching that “human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception” and so, oppose abortions in almost all forms (rare exceptions exist in cases when the mother’s life is in extreme danger).
Liberals, on the other hand, advocate the values of ‘right to choose’ and ‘my body, my right’, arguing that a woman must have the freedom and the choice to be able to decide whether or not to give birth. Abortion, liberals argue, should be a matter between a patient and her doctor.
Abortion has been debated in the United States for ages and has pitted the Republicans (conservatives) against the Democrats (liberals) — the two leading political groups of the country’s bipolar system. The debate reached the US Supreme Court in 1973 when the court, in a landmark decision (known as Roe v. Wade), ruled that the country’s constitution protected a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion.
Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception
– From ‘Clarification on procured abortion’ on the Vatican’s website
That decision stood for decades, even though several US states over the years brought in restrictions that made getting abortions difficult. Some states, for example, limited the number of abortion clinics in an area. Others restricted government-funded clinics from offering abortion services. Yet others, like the state of Texasallowed civil lawsuits against those providing abortion services.
ABORTION BACK IN HEADLINES
These local laws (US state governments have a high degree of autonomy), while effectively performing end runs against the Roe v. Wade judgment, did not take away from the fact that the United States constitutionally recognized a woman’s right to have an abortion. Even if, in real life, it was near impossible in some states to get one.
Now, with the May 2 Politico news bombshell, there are concerns in the United States that this could change. The US Supreme Court has admitted that the draft is authentic while reiterating that it does not reflect the court’s final stand.
The leak of a US Supreme Court draft judgment is being seen as unprecedented (AP photo)
Protests and demonstrations — both for and against abortion — are already taking place and are expected to intensify in the coming days. Democrats, including US President Joe Biden, have expressed concern and have called for legislative action in case the US Supreme Court does rule in a manner the leaked draft indicates it would. Republicans, on the other hand, are aghast at the leak itself and have called for strict punishment for the leaker.
Meanwhile, in an indication of just how divisive the issue of abortion is in the US, there is intense speculation over the ideology of the leaker: Is the person a liberal who’s looking to drum up public pressure to change the court’s stand? Or a conservative hoping to create a fait accompli type of a situation and lock in the support of the five judges currently in favor of overturning the Roe v. Wade verdict?
If the Court does overturn Roe, it will fall on our nation’s elected officials at all levels of government to protect a woman’s right to choose
– US President Joe Biden
All this, just by the way, is happening in a year when the United States will vote in an entire new House of Representatives (akin to Lok Sabha) and a third of its Senate (equivalent to the Rajya Sabha).
The debate is raging and is likely to rage in the days to come. Religion, politics, women’s rights, and an unprecedented leak have created a heady cocktail that could have far-reaching ramifications for the United States.
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