Supreme Court Majority to Overturn Roe Remains Unchanged Despite Leak, Pro-Abortion Violence

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   May 9, 2022   |   11:40AM   |   Washington, DC

The Supreme Court majority to overturn Roe has reportedly not changed despite the leak of the draft of the opinion last week and pro-abortion violence and protests in the days following.

Although Americans are in favor of overturning Roe and 11 recent polls show Americans are pro-life on abortion, abortion activists have engaged in violence, vandalism and heated protests in response to a leaked draft opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court that overturns Roe v. Wade.  They hope to somehow persuade one or more Supreme Court justices to change their mind.

But new reports from the Washington Post and Fox News indicate insiders have revealed that the five-justice majority for overturning Roe has not changed. Chief Justice John Roberts has been trying to get one of the conservative justices to peel away from the majority to join him in upholding a Mississippi law to ban abortions at 15 weeks without reversing roe, but the reports indicate he’s not finding any success.

The five-vote majority needed in the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey remains intact months after Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s leaked draft majority opinion was written, according to a report.

The leaked draft majority opinion penned by Alito is dated Feb. 10 and has almost certainly changed multiple times in the almost three months since it was written, but three conservative sources close to the court say that the votes supporting the decision remain unchanged, according to reporting from the Washington Post.

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The justices set to join Alito’s opinion include Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.

Chief Justice John Roberts, who has at times sided with the liberal wing of the court, still appears set to oppose the decision, with the report noting that Roberts was still attempting to persuade Coney Barrett and Kavanaugh to take a more incremental approach to allowing abortion restrictions.

Late Friday, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had a message for the radical abortion activists who think they can bully the Supreme Court into revising its draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade: You can’t bully us.

Thomas spoke at the 11th Circuit judicial conference in Atlanta where he discussed the Supreme Court’s leaked draft opinion for the first time.

As a society, “we are becoming addicted to wanting particular outcomes, not living with the outcomes we don’t like,” Thomas said.

“We can’t be an institution that can be bullied into giving you just the outcomes you want. The events from earlier this week are a symptom of that.,” Thomas said, according to reports.

Chief Justice John Roberts spoke at the same conference Thursday, where he called the leak “absolutely appalling.” He, too, said the violence and attacks form pro-abortion activists would not influence the Supreme Court’s final decision.

Pro-life pregnancy centers and pro-life advocates already have been the targets of vandalism, violence and harassment this week in response to the news. At least one Catholic church has, too, and more seems likely in the days ahead. Abortion activists bombed a pro-life group’s office, causing extensive damage.

Abortion activists are trying to intimidate U.S. Supreme Court justices to change their mind and uphold Roe after the leaked draft opinion showed the majority voting to overturn the infamous 1973 ruling. The draft is not final, judges can change their minds, and it is not clear when the high court will issue its final ruling on the abortion case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, but many believe the court will overturn Roe and allow states to protect unborn babies again.

Along with the violence of abortion against unborn babies, threats and violence against pro-life advocates also have increased in recent years. LifeNews.com has documented reports of hundreds of incidents in recent years, including bomb threats, assaults, death threats, arson and vandalism.

And violence by abortion activists likely will continue as the U.S. Supreme Court gets ready to issue its final ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health this summer. If the court overturns Roe, the Guttmacher Institute predicts that 26 states would ban abortions.

Since 1973, more than 63 million unborn babies and hundreds of mothers have died in supposedly “safe, legal” abortions.

Polling data shows Americans are decidedly pro-life.