Draft abortion opinion leads to speculation around future of contraception, marriage rights
After a draft opinion of the Supreme Court's plan to overturn landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade was leaked, The Guardian says "legal experts believe other laws about individual autonomy may be in danger, including the right to access contraception."
Broad language in an abortion ruling could potentially imperil certain methods of birth control, which "opponents incorrectly say are working as abortion-causing medications," The Guardian adds. That means striking down the right to contraception (Griswold v. Connecticut) could be next, some experts predict.
Wendy Parmet, faculty co-director for the Center for Health Policy and Law at Northeastern University says "[i]f this [draft] opinion becomes the opinion of the court, Griswold is imperiled – no question."
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Additionally, The Washington Post points to speculation that a major abortion restriction could also threaten to "erase decades of activism by the LGBTQ community" on same-sex marriage. Because the draft opinion argues that Roe is a faulty law, The Guardian reports, some analysts think it could rope in other cases based on the 14th amendment, "like Obergefell v. Hodges on same-sex marriage, Loving v. Virginia on interracial marriage, and Lawrence v. Texas on consensual sex."
"Legal experts are divided on whether the right to same-sex marriage is actually in danger," writes the Post, noting that the draft opinion did emphasize that "nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion." Read more at The Washington Post and The Guardian.
