The bell rang, signaling the end of sixth period on Friday, May 11, 2022. This seemingly normal occurrence marked something different that day, initiating a student walkout from the front of the school to Corte Madera Town Center and back to protest for abortion rights. This demonstration was in response to an initial draft majority opinion to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.
The draft, written by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Jr., was leaked by Politico, a national political publication, on May 2, 2022. Vice President Kamala Harris confirmed the legitimacy of the draft the following day. This draft, if it becomes final, would ultimately overturn the precedent of the Roe v. Wade case, which protects citizens’ federal right to obtain an abortion within the first trimester of pregnancy. The draft suggests the federal government will pass down abortion legislation to the discretion of state governments. Five out of the nine Supreme Court justices currently support this opinion, but no decision is final yet.
This controversy exploded as a result of arguments regarding a Mississippi abortion law from 2018. Those in favor of maintaining the law are requesting the Supreme Court “uphold the constitutionality of [this] law that generally prohibits an abortion after the 15th week of pregnancy,” according to Alito’s draft. The Mississippi law contradicts the ruling in Roe, and thus inspired a resurgence of debates around Roe’s original constitutional interpretation.
This is not the first time Roe has been disputed in the Supreme Court. In the 1992 case of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern PA v. Casey, four members of the Court suggested an overruling of Roe in its entirety. According to the draft opinion by Alito, two other Justices initiated a debate about whether or not Roe is upheld by the Constitution. The draft also states politicians in 26 states have requested both Roe and Casey be overturned.
Handing a federal power to state legislatures is nothing new in the U.S. The draft cites Brown v. Board of Education as a Supreme Court case that overruled a prior one, Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld the “separate but equal” principle on the basis of race. In overturning Plessy, the Court simultaneously overruled six other Supreme Court precedents upholding the same standard. Alito uses this reasoning to defend the decision to overrule Roe and hand down the federal government’s power to regulate abortion to the states.
Should the abortion decision be granted to state governments, the nation will see a dramatic shift in access to contraceptive services. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research facility, about two dozen states have current abortion bans, known as “trigger laws,” that would be implemented immediately if Roe is overturned, as shown in the map above. Currently, California is not one of these states. In fact, Governor Gavin Newsom reported on social media on May 3 that he is “proposing an amendment to enshrine the right to choose in the California constitution.”
Locally, members of the Redwood community have had strong reactions to the leaked document. English and Advanced Placement (AP) Capstone teacher Emily LaTourrette had mixed feelings when she found out about the draft being leaked.
“I think there are layers to it. On one hand, I’m not completely surprised by the content of it, given the political climate and gridlock our country is in on this particular issue. The fact it was a leaked document … the intricacies of the content [and] the actual language in it was more surprising,” LaTourrette said.
According to the May 2022 Bark survey, 72 percent of students heard discussions of the draft circulating around Redwood in the days following its leak, and many have participated in these conversations. The May Bark survey also showed that 78 percent of students opposed the overturning of Roe, 11 percent supported the opinion draft and the rest had no opinion on the matter. The news personally horrified seniors Lola Zirpoli and Gwen Kallmeyer.
“I saw it on the news and immediately went into a rage. I texted [Kallmeyer] and all I said was ‘Gwen, I’m going to cry,’ and she said, ‘I know.’ Immediately, we knew we were talking about the same thing,” Zirpoli said. “It was not surprising, but [it was] disgusting at the same time.”
Zirpoli found herself inclined to take action against the draft immediately, attending a protest in San Francisco the day after the leak. Kallmeyer and Zirpoli, along with many other Redwood students, were touched by how many people they witnessed supporting abortion rights. Zirpoli recalls her experience with one woman who opened up about her abortion.
“I haven’t talked to that many people who have openly said they have gotten an abortion. That’s still not the culture we live in. It was super empowering to listen to her talk about her abortion experiences and how she was so thankful to have that right because she was a victim of sexual assault,” Zirpoli said.
Proudly showing off her women’s rights shirt, Zirpoli to the left attended the San Francisco protest with pride and enthusiasm. (Photo courtesy of Liv Holscher)
Kallmeyer learned the woman is part of a knitting group that makes hats for protests and has been doing so for a while.
“It was super devastating for her to go through her whole life [and still be fighting] as an elderly woman,” Kallmeyer said.
The protest was filled with people furious with the opinions of the draft and driven to incite change. Another emotional speaker recalled Roe’s impact on the generations of women in the U.S.
“She [said], ‘When I was born, Roe was a law, and when my daughter was born, Roe was a law, but when my grandchild is born, it will not be a law for her. She will have to fight, and we don’t know how easy it’s going to be for her,’ and that gave me the chills,” Zirpoli said.
Holding up their handmade signs, the image to the left shows Kallmeyer and Zirpoli standing in solidarity with the abortion rights movement. (Photo courtesy of Lola Zirpoli)
Though the opinions in the draft are not yet official, concerns regarding its potential have been circulating. LaTourrette has seen news outlets discussing the draft and what it could mean for the country in the future.
“People are concerned the dismantling of [Roe] could have implications for other things like same-sex marriage [and] access to contraceptives, not just abortion,” LaTourrette said.
The basis of such concerns stems from Roe’s basis in the constitutional “right to privacy,” which was founded in the 14th Amendment. History shows plenty of past Supreme Court rulings where the right to privacy was used: Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965 upheld the ability to purchase contraceptives, Loving v. Virginia in 1968 outlawed bans on interracial marriages, Lawrence v. Texas in 2003 established citizens cannot be punished for sodomy under the Constitution, protecting homosexual citizens rights and Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015 legalized same-sex marriage.
The Politico draft cites some of these cases, suggesting they too were based on faulty constitutional reasoning. However, Alito claims because these decisions do not involve a “potential life,” cases based on Roe and the right to privacy will not necessarily be impacted by this overruling. However, many have proven reluctant to such affirmations, worrying that should the right to privacy be adjusted in the overturning of Roe, a door is then opened for revisiting a wide range of current rights. According to CNN Politics, Alito himself voted against the right to same-sex marriage in 2015.
Analysts studying the leaked draft have also discussed how Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death in 2020, during the Trump administration, paved the way for right-leaning Amy Coney Barrett’s appointment to the Supreme Court, which may have impacted the formation of the draft. An opinion article from The Daily Beast writes, “Ginsburg alone couldn’t have saved the court, but in giving up her seat she could have stalled its transformation into the conservative juggernaut that is about to achieve the Republicans’ ‘Holy Grail.’” That being said, Ginsburg was within her rights to remain in her Supreme Court seat until her passing and remains highly respected for all she did for numerous marginalized communities.
Refer to the editorial and feature article on the Bark website for more regarding student reactions to the draft.