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- Padres edge Dodgers, Mets on the brink
- Can carbon credits help close coal plants?
- With EU funding, Tunisian farmer revives parched village
- Sega ninja game 'Shinobi' gets movie treatment
- Boeing suspends negotiations with striking workers
- 7-Eleven owner's shares spike on report of new buyout offer
- Your 'local everything': what 7-Eleven buyout battle means for Japan
- Three million UK children living below poverty line: study
- China's Jia brings film spanning love, change over decades to Busan
- Paying out disaster relief before climate catastrophe strikes
- Chinese shares drop on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- SE Asian summit seeks progress on Myanmar civil war
- How climate funds helped Peru's women beekeepers stay afloat
- Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded as wars rage
- Pacific island nations swamped by global drug trade
- AI-aided research, new materials eyed for Nobel Chemistry Prize
- Mozambique elects new president in tense vote
- The US economy is solid: Why are voters gloomy?
- Balkan summit to rally support for struggling Ukraine
- New stadium gives Real Madrid a headache
- Alonso, Manaea shine as 'Miracle Mets' blitz Phillies
- Harris, Trump trade blows in US election media blitz
- Harry's Bar in Paris drinks to US straw-poll centenary
- Osama bin Laden's son Omar banned from returning to France
- Afghan man arrested for plotting US election day attack
- Brazil lifts ban on Musk's X, ending standoff over disinformation
- Harris holds slight edge nationally over Trump: poll
- Chelsea edge Real Madrid in Women's Champions League, Lyon win
- Japan PM to dissolve parliament for 'honeymoon' snap election
- 'Diego Lives': Immersive Maradona exhibit hits Barcelona
- Brazil Supreme Court lifts ban on Musk's X
- Scientists sound AI alarm after winning physics Nobel
- Six-year-old girl among missing after Brazil landslide
- Nobel-winning physicist 'unnerved' by AI technology he helped create
- Mexico president rules out new 'war on drugs'
- Israeli defense minister postpones trip to Washington: Pentagon
- Europe skipper Donald in talks with Garcia over Ryder return
- Kenya MPs vote to impeach deputy president in historic move
- Former US coach Berhalter named Chicago Fire head coach
- New York Jets fire head coach Saleh: team
- Australia crush New Zealand in Women's T20 World Cup
- US states accuse TikTok of harming young users
- 'Evacuate now, now, now': Florida braces for next hurricane
- US Supreme Court skeptical of challenge to 'ghost guns' regulation
- Sparks fly as Orban berates EU 'elites' in parliament trip
- US finalizes rule to remove lead pipes within a decade
- Solanke hungry for second England cap after seven-year wait
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Supreme Court leak ignites US abortion firestorm
President Joe Biden urged voters Tuesday to defend their "fundamental" rights after a leaked Supreme Court draft on ending nationwide legal abortion sparked a political firestorm around one of America's most divisive ethical issues.
If confirmed by the court, the ruling would categorically overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade case, which enshrined abortion rights across the country -- ensuring the hot-button question will dominate the November midterm elections for control of Congress.
In practice, it would mean that abortion laws were left up to individual state legislatures, with as many as half of the country's states expected to introduce bans or new restrictions.
Abortion is the fiercest fought of all the so-called culture war battles, and Republicans have pushed hard for years to overturn Roe -- something that became almost inevitable once three conservative justices were appointed under Donald Trump, shifting the Supreme Court's political balance sharply to the right.
Biden, whose Democrats have been forecast to lose their narrow control of Congress in November, issued a rallying cry to the left, warning that restricting abortion rights will be only the beginning.
"I believe that a woman's right to choose is fundamental... and basic fairness and the stability of our law demand that it not be overturned," Biden said in a written statement.
"It will fall on voters to elect" officials who back abortion rights, he said, vowing to work to pass legislation in Congress that codifies Roe v. Wade -- a goal impossible to achieve unless far more Democrats win seats.
Speaking to reporters, Biden went further, calling the draft ruling "radical" and warning of a "fundamental shift in American jurisprudence" that could put into question the future of gay marriage and "how you raise your child."
"It would mean that every other decision relating to the notion of privacy is thrown into question."
- 'Roe v. Wade is going to go!' -
The leaking of the draft ruling was unprecedented, knocking another hole in the once hallowed reputation of the top court as the one apolitical branch in the US government.
Chief Justice John Roberts confirmed that the document released by the Politico news website was authentic, although he cautioned that this did not necessarily represent the court's final decision. Roberts ordered a probe into the leak.
Crowds of protesters from both camps descended on the Supreme Court building, with anti-abortion activists chanting "abortion is violence. Abortion is oppression" as well as "Hey Hey Ho Ho Roe v. Wade is going to go!"
In Roe v. Wade, the court ruled that access to abortion is a constitutional right. In a subsequent 1992 ruling, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the court guaranteed a woman's right to an abortion until the fetus is viable outside the womb, which is typically around 22 to 24 weeks of gestation.
Most developed countries allow abortions on request up to a gestational limit, most often 12 weeks.
Roe v. Wade makes the United States one of a handful of nations to allow the procedure without restriction beyond 20 weeks of pregnancy -- although many others allow it past that point for specific reasons.
The court had been expected to decide this June on challenges to Roe v. Wade.
The Republican National Committee said it was time for abortion decisions to revert to state governments.
"The far left wants unelected judges to impose a radical, one-size fits all abortion policy, leaving Americans without a voice. The Republican Party will always stand for the sanctity of life," it said.
- 'Wrong from the start' -
The draft opinion was written by Justice Samuel Alito and according to Politico has been circulating since February inside the court -- now dominated 6-3 by conservatives.
The 98-page draft majority opinion calls Roe v. Wade decision enshrining the right to abortion "egregiously wrong from the start."
"We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled," Alito writes in the document, labeled the "Opinion of the Court."
"It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people's elected representatives."
Democratic governors of several states including California, New Mexico and Michigan swiftly announced plans to enshrine abortion rights into law even if the court overturns Roe, with California Governor Gavin Newsom tweeting: "Women will remain protected here."
Y.Nakamura--AMWN