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Frosh calls contents of leaked abortion ruling ‘dangerous departure’
Calling it a “dangerous departure” from nearly a half century of precedent, Maryland’s top law enforcement official has spoken out on the leaked draft of a U.S. Supreme Court decision on abortion.
Attorney General Brian Frosh, a Democrat, issued a statement one day after Politico reported it obtained the draft, and the same day the Court confirmed the draft’s authenticity. The Mississippi abortion case is Thomas E. Dobbs, State Health Officer of the Mississippi Department of Health v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The Supreme Court’s ruling is expected in late June or July.
In Politico’s published report on the draft, Alito wrote that Mississippi is asking the court to “uphold the constitutionality of a law that generally prohibits abortion after the fifteenth week of pregnancy – several weeks before the point at which a fetus is now regarded as ‘viable’ outside the womb.”
Frosh said overturning Roe v. Wade is a grave departure from 50 years of precedent.
“If adopted by a majority of the Court, the decision will undermine the rights of women to control their own bodies and their health care,” Frosh said in the release. “It will subject survivors of abuse, rape and incest to additional trauma by preventing them from accessing abortions. And, as usual, a decision overturning Roe will have the most harmful and lasting impact on women of color and on poor women, many of whom already lack meaningful access to safe, affordable reproductive health care.”
Frosh went on to say that overturning Roe would have “broader implications for our modern society” that would threaten “the rights of all Americans to make private decisions” about their lives without government interference.
“As citizens, it is more important than ever that we demand better from those who hold power in our institutions and that we hold our elected officials accountable for their role in protecting our rights.”
Frosh spoke of how elected officials in the state have worked diligently for more than 30 years to protect women’s rights.
“I am proud to have been a part of those efforts both as a legislator and as the attorney general,” Frosh said. “I am especially proud of having voted to codify Roe v. Wade in the House of Delegates in 1991 and for the work that our office has done to protect and expand access to reproductive health care services across Maryland.
“I am optimistic that our state will continue to be a champion for the rights of women to make their own health care decisions, and that it will continue to protect the rights to privacy for all Marylanders.”
In the Mississippi case, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch argued, according to the leaked document, that Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa v. Casey in 1992, should be reconsidered and the court to overrule Roe and Casey to allow each state to “regulate abortion as its citizens wish.”
This article was originally posted on Frosh calls contents of leaked abortion ruling ‘dangerous departure’
