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Rafqa Touma (now), Kari Paul , Richard Luscombe and Alexandra Topping (earlier)

Protests swell across major cities as US reckons with supreme court decision draft – as it happened

Abortion United States

We are going to pause live coverage of response to the leaked supreme court draft opinion that would overturn Roe v Wade, following a historic day in the United States.

You can read our wrap up of events over the past 24 hours here:

Turning away from Roe v Wade, Donald Trump-backed Republican candidate JD Vance has won the Senate Republican primary in Ohio.

Vance will now face Democratic congressman Tim Ryan in November to determine who will fill the seat of retiring Republican Senator Rob Portman.

Read the full story here:

Actor and comedian Julia Louis-Dreyfus is “really angry” and ready to match USD$10,000 in donations to support abortion funds.

The actress’ anger echoes that expressed by US leaders, with Massachusetts Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren taking to the streets of Washington earlier declaring: “‘I am angry, upset and determined”.

Watch the full video here.

Lyft is one of the few companies publicly commenting on the leaked supreme court draft opinion to overturn Roe v Wade, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In an interview with the newspaper on Tuesday, Lyft president John Zimmer “reiterated the firm’s commitment to helping women get abortions if needed”.

Kari Paul has more on the ‘pro-life Spiderman’, who was reportedly arrested in San Fransisco on Tuesday after free-climbing the 60-floor Salesforce tower, in a stunt apparently indented as a protest against abortion.

In this photo provided by the San Francisco Fire Department, a man is seen climbing the 1,070-foot-tall Salesforce Tower in San Francisco
In this photo provided by the San Francisco Fire Department, a man is seen climbing the 1,070-foot-tall Salesforce Tower in San Francisco Photograph: AP

Read the full story here.

The supreme court’s draft ruling and the reaction that followed has made front pages beyond the US, too.

In the UK, the Independent leads with an image of protesters outside the supreme court with the headline “Outcry at court threat to abortion rights across US”.

The Guardian also has protesters in Washington shown alongside its headline: “Biden: leaked anti-abortion ruling ‘imperils civil rights’”.

The Financial Times leads with “Supreme Court leak rallies Biden to defence of US abortion rights”, reporting that “judges urged to uphold Roe v Wade” while noting the draft opinion may not be the final say.

Kamala Harris calls supreme court decision 'assault on freedom'

Vice-president Kamala Harris has said that the potential supreme court decision overturning Roe v Wade represents an attack on women and lashed out at Republicans for “weaponizing” the issue.

“If the court overturns Roe v Wade, it will be a direct assault on freedom,” Harris, a Democrat, told attendees at a gala hosted by Emily’s List, an organization which works to get abortion-rights Democrats elected to office.

The vice-president has long championed women’s health, particularly related to abortion rights.

On Tuesday she said the last 24 hours have made it clear where Democrats and Republicans stand. Harris’ speech was planned before the leak of the ruling, but has taken on added meaning.

Some Republican leaders are trying to weaponize the use of the law against women. How dare they. How dare they tell a woman what she can and cannot do with her own body. How dare they try to stop her from determining her own future. How dare they try to deny women their rights and their freedoms.”

Updated

Hello, this is Rafqa Touma taking over the blog on a seismic day in America, after a leaked draft supreme court ruling overturning Roe v Wade sent shockwaves across the country.

Protests have been building across the country as women demand that their reproductive rights are protected.

Barrack Obama has said the provisional ruling was “a blow not just to women, but to all of us who believe in a free society,” while Michelle Obama has recognised Americans “fearing that their essential freedoms under the constitution were at risk”. And Elizabeth Warren has taken to the streets of Washington, screaming “I am angry!”.

Follow us here for live updates as events unfold into the evening.

Here are some images form the rallies across the US.

Abortion-rights supporters march in downtown Atlanta
Abortion-rights supporters march in downtown Atlanta Photograph: Matthew Pearson/REX/Shutterstock
A protest in support of abortion rights is held in Boston
A protest in support of abortion rights is held in Boston
 Photograph: Brian Snyder/Reuters
A demonstrator wearing a face mask takes part in a protest in New York City
A demonstrator wearing a face mask takes part in a protest in New York City Photograph: Jeenah Moon/Reuters
Defend the Right To Abortion EmergenPorchse Miller, a community oragnizer for the Atlanta NAACP speaks in downtown Atlanta
Defend the Right To Abortion EmergenPorchse Miller, a community oragnizer for the Atlanta NAACP speaks in downtown Atlanta Photograph: Matthew Pearson/REX/Shutterstock

In case you missed Elizabeth Warren’s earlier speech, here is a quick snippet of her remarks from the protest at the supreme court below.

“I am angry, upset and determined,” the Massachusetts Democratic senator said.

“The United States Congress can keep Roe v Wade the law of the land, they just need to do it,” referring to the Women’s Health Protection Act, which fell down in the Senate in March because of lack of Republican support and one Democrat opposing.

Evening summary

Kari Paul here in California, logging off for the evening following a harrowing 24 hours for abortion access in the United States. My colleagues in Australia will take it from here. Here’s an summary of where things stand this evening, courtesy of myself and other Guardian reporters:

  • Thousands have joined pro-choice protests across the US following the supreme court leak, with actions in Nashville, Dallas, New York City, and other cities. There has also been a large protest outside the supreme court itself in Washington DC.
  • The governor of Oklahoma has signed into law a bill banning abortion after six weeks, mirroring a similar controversial measure passed last year in Texas.
  • A protestor in San Francisco was arrested after scaling the 60-floor Salesforce tower in an action to oppose abortion.
  • Chief justice John Roberts has promised a full inquiry into the leak of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft ruling overturning Roe v Wade, calling the leak an act of “betrayal”. Roberts also confirmed the authenticity of the document, reported lats night by Politico.
  • Speaking to reporters on his way to Alabama, Joe Biden said the draft ruling is “really quite a radical decision ... a fundamental shift” in the supreme court’s previous position on abortion. Biden also said in an earlier statement that the government must protect a woman’s right to abortion.
  • But any attempt in the US Senate to codify abortion rights looks doomed to failure because Democrats cannot muster the 60 votes they need. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer is promising a vote anyway: “Every American is going to see which side every senator stands”.
  • Susan Collins, the Republican senator who voted to confirm two of Donald Trump’s three picks to the supreme court because they promised her abortion rights were settled law, says the justices’ new stance is “inconsistent” with what they previously said.

Updated

Pro-choice rallies sweep the country

Thousands have joined pro-choice protests across the US following the publishing of a report revealing landmark abortion rights decision Roe v Wade may be overturned by the supreme court.

Thousands rallied in cities including Nashville, Dallas, New York City, and New Orleans on Tuesday evening after politicians including Hillary Clinton encouraged action.

Updated

Doctors report overwhelming demand from out-of-state patients as more abortion bans pass

As Texas, Oklahoma, and others in the US pass extreme anti-abortion laws, doctors in neighboring states say they have struggled to manage the influx of traveling patients.

In Colorado, one abortion provider told local reporter Alex Burness his case load has doubled since the fall, and that his colleagues are facing similar struggles.

People are facing longer waits and higher risks to pregnancy as a result, according to Burness.

The issue comes as abortion access is further threatened by a pending supreme court decision to overturn Roe v Wade.

Twenty-six US states have “trigger laws” on the books that would immediately make abortion illegal if the landmark court decision is overturned, putting more pressure on states that maintain abortion services.

Anti-abortion activist scales San Francisco’s Salesforce tower

A man calling himself the “pro-life Spiderman” was arrested Tuesday after free climbing the Salesforce tower in San Francisco.

The fire department confirmed the incident on Twitter and encouraged the public to “join us in condemning this action”.

At 60 floors and 1,070 feet, the Salesforce tower is the second tallest building West of the Mississipi and the 17th-tallest in the US.

The activist apparently sought to protest a specific abortion provider, according to posts on his personal Instagram.

He has gone to similarly extreme measures in support other fringe rightwing causes in the past, including climbing the 600 foot Aria Hotel in August 2021 to protest Covid-19 mandates in the state.

Updated

Oklahoma governor signs bill banning abortion after six weeks

Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt signed a bill into law on Tuesday prohibiting abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, mirroring an extreme law passed by Texas in 2021.

Its passage comes amid nation-wide protests triggered by the leak of a supreme court decision draft that showed the body is poised to overturn landmark abortion rights decision Roe v Wade.

The Oklahoma and Texas laws are part of a nationwide effort in Republican-led states to push forth extreme anti-abortion measures in hopes the now majority conservative supreme court will uphold them.

Oklahoma’s law is set to take effect immediately, forcing abortion providers in the state to immediately stop providing the procedure to people at six or more weeks of pregnancy.

Abortion rights advocates have promised to challenge the bill.

Updated

Protests swell in New York City

Thousands of protestors began to gather in New York City’s Foley Square on Tuesday evening ahead of a protest planned by pro-choice advocates.

The action follows the leak of a document that revealed the supreme court is poised to overturn key abortion rights decision Roe v Wade. A parallel protest is planned for Brooklyn’s Barclays center later in the day.

Activists are already expressing concern that police department measures for crowd control could impact the action.

Politicians including Hilary Clinton and New York Senator Julia Salazar have endorsed the protest.

Kari Paul here, taking over on the West Coast. Stand by for updates.

It’s Richard Luscombe signing off, and handing the blog over to my colleague Kari Paul on the west coast, who will guide you through the rest of the day’s reaction to the stunning news of the supreme court’s reversal on abortion rights.

I’ll leave you with our latest full story on the events of the day. Thanks for joining me.

Standing in front of the US supreme court, congressman Don Beyer of Virginia waits for his turn to speak in front of a growing crowd of protestors, some holding purple signs reading “hands off our bodies”.

“We’ve been seeing this coming for quite a while but it’s really devastating when it actually comes. It’s so full of holes. If this is set aside what else can be set aside?” the Democrat told the Guardian.

“There’s so many mixed marriages, interracial marriages right now, are they all going to be illegal?”

Beyer, in a tweet earlier today, said the abortion fight was “on the doorstep” of Virginia, where Republican governor Glenn Youngkin favors restrictions.

Meanwhile, Democratic senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts addressed the crowd to call for the expansion of the number of justices on the supreme court, according to the New York Times.

The crowd broke into a chant of “four more seats!”, the number of new liberal justices that would need to be confirmed to overturn the current 6-3 conservative majority.

A presidential commission to look into the supreme court, including its make-up, was appointed by Joe Biden last year, but according to Politico fizzled out with no recommendation.

Biden, however, is believed to be against so-called court packing.

Here’s a short study (via Twitter) of the reactions of three women state governors, one Republican, the others Democrats, to the supreme court news.

In South Dakota, Republican Kristi Noem is champing at the bit to get the state’s legislature back into session to get an abortion ban on the books:

Meanwhile, in Michigan, Democrat Gretchen Whitmer is promising to “fight like hell” to protect access to abortions:

Michigan has a 1931 law banning abortions, with no exceptions for rape or incest, which would become the default if Roe v Wade is overturned, according to ClickOn Detroit.

The news station says Whitmer has a “decent shot” and getting the law overturned by taking in straight to the state’s supreme court for a ruling.

And in New Mexico, the Democratic governor Michelle Lujan Grisham says today’s developments make steps the state has taken to protect abortion access “more important than ever”.

“Access to abortion is access to health care - and that won’t change here,” she wrote.

My colleague Lauren Gambino has taken this look at what the supreme court decision on abortion could mean for the midterm elections later this year:

The stunning revelation that the US supreme court has privately voted to overturn Roe v Wade immediately thrust one of the most polarizing issues in American life to the forefront of the national political debate, and now abortion rights promises to reshape the dynamics of the coming midterm elections.

... “Republicans just gutted Roe v Wade, the Constitution’s guarantee of reproductive freedom, and will ban abortion in all 50 states, if they take over Congress,” the New York congressman Sean Patrick Maloney, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, wrote on Twitter. “Only Democrats will protect our freedoms. That is now the central choice in the 2022 election.”

Obamas: abortion opinion 'a blow to women and free society'

Barack Obama has said the supreme court’s draft ruling overturning abortion rights is “a blow not just to women, but to all of us who believe in a free society”.

A statement just released from the former president and first lady Michelle Obama slammed the opinion and called on citizens to stand up with activists in “urging Congress to codify Roe into law”:

Today, millions of Americans woke up fearing that their essential freedoms under the constitution were at risk.

If the supreme court ultimately decides to overturn the landmark case of Roe v Wade, then it will not only reverse nearly 50 years of precedent, it will relegate the most intensely personal decision someone can make to the whims of politicians and ideologues.

Barack Obama.
Barack Obama. Photograph: Jessica Christian/AP

The statement goes on to spell out what would be lost if Roe v Wade gets reversed:

What Roe recognized is that the freedom enshrined in the 14th Amendment requires all of us to enjoy a sphere of our lives that isn’t subject to meddling from the state - a sphere that includes personal decisions involving who we sleep with, who we marry, whether or not to use contraception, and whether or not to bear children.

The consequences of this decision would be a blow not just to women, but to all of us who believe that in a free society, there are limits to how much the government can encroach on our personal lives.

The Obamas conclude with a call to arms, and a request to voters to show up in the midterm elections later this year:

Join with the activists who have been sounding the alarm on this issue for years and act. Stand with them at a local protest. Volunteer with them on a campaign. Join with them in urging Congress to codify Roe into law and vote alongside them on or before November 8 and in every other election.

Because in the end, if we want judges who will protect all and not just some of our rights, then we’ve got to elect officials committed to doing the same.

More than half of US states will outlaw abortion immediately or as soon as practicable, if a leaked draft decision from five supreme court justices remains substantially unchanged.

The result would send hundreds of thousands of people in 26 states hostile to abortion elsewhere to terminate a pregnancy – either by traveling hundreds of miles to an abortion clinic or seeking to self-manage abortion through medication from grassroots or illicit groups.

Many would also be forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term.

“Abortion is an essential part of reproductive healthcare, and this is going to affect people, even people who think, ‘I will never have an abortion,’” said Dr Nisha Verma, a Darney-Landy fellow with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

On Monday, a draft supreme court decision in arguably the most contentious case in generations was leaked. The case considered whether Mississippi could ban abortion at 15 weeks gestation.

The ban is highly significant because it strikes at the heart of US constitutional protections for abortion. The landmark 1973 decision Roe v Wade established the right for pregnant people to terminate a pregnancy up to the point a fetus can survive outside the womb, roughly considered 24 weeks gestation, and a legal principle called “viability”.

The decision invalidated dozens of state bans, and until the court issues a final decision, prevents states from outlawing abortion before viability. A final decision is expected from the court in late June.

The leaked decision in the Mississippi case, called Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, shows five conservative justices are willing to reverse constitutional protections for abortion on the grounds Roe v Wade was wrongly decided.

If the decision is not substantially changed by the time a final opinion is issued, abortion regulation would be returned to the states where lawmakers across the south and midwest of the US have enacted bans in anticipation of the court’s decision.

Read more:

Biden 'not prepared' to support ending Senate filibuster to pass abortion rights law

We’ve received the full transcript of Joe Biden’s remarks to reporters at Joint Base Andrews, in which he appears to rule out ending the filibuster to get an abortion rights law through the senate.

Democrats need 60 votes in the chamber, 10 more than they currently have, although they would harbor hopes of persuading moderate Republicans Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski over to their side.

Joe Biden speaks to reporters at Joint Base Andrews.
Joe Biden speaks to reporters at Joint Base Andrews. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Overriding the procedural filibuster rule, seen as a nuclear option by congressional watchers, would reduce the requirement to 50 - but Biden says he’s not on board. At least not yet.

“I’m not prepared to make those judgments now,” Biden replied to a reporter’s question asking him directly if the senate should do away with the filibuster to codify the Roe v Wade ruling that gives a constitutional right to abortion.

He did say, however, that such a law “makes a lot of sense”:

Think what Roe says. Roe says what all basic mainstream religions have historically concluded, that the right, that the existence of a human life and being, is a question. Is it at the moment of conception? Is it six months? Is it six weeks?

So the idea that we’re going to make a judgment, that no one can make the judgment to choose to abort a child based on a decision by the supreme court, I think, goes way overboard.

The Democratic senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has promised a vote in the wake of the supreme court’s draft opinion, although he acknowledges he doesn’t have the votes he needs for it to pass.

The purpose, he said, would ensure “every American is going to see which side every senator stands”.

Biden said he was still looking at the draft ruling, but did not like what he was reading:

It basically says all the decisions related to your private life, who you marry, whether or not you decide to conceive a child, whether or not you can have an abortion, a range of other decisions, how you raise your child... what does this do?

Does this mean that in Florida they can decide they’re going to pass a law saying that same-sex marriage is not permissible, that it’s against the law in Florida?

It’s a fundamental shift in American jurisprudence if it were to hold.

Updated

Kamala Harris: Roe opponents 'want to punish women'

Here’s the vice-president’s statement, published just now to the White House website:

The United States Supreme Court has now confirmed that the draft opinion that would overturn Roe v Wade is genuine.

Roe ensures a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion. It also, at its root, protects the fundamental right to privacy. What is clear is that opponents of Roe want to punish women and take away their rights to make decisions about their own bodies. Republican legislators in states across the country are weaponizing the use of the law against women.

The rights of all Americans are at risk. If the right to privacy is weakened, every person could face a future in which the government can potentially interfere in the personal decisions you make about your life. This is the time to fight for women and for our country with everything we have.

Harris is scheduled to speak tonight at the We Are Emily conference and gala in Washington DC, an event celebrating “women taking the lead in defending our democracy and our right to reproductive freedom”.

Updated

John Roberts, the US chief justice, has announced an investigation into a leak showing that the supreme court provisionally voted to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade case that legalised abortion nationwide.

Chief justice John Roberts.
Chief justice John Roberts. Photograph: Reuters

Publication of the draft opinion by the Politico website on Monday night sparked demonstrations outside America’s highest court, condemnation from Joe Biden and fears that the judiciary has suffered profound damage to its reputation for independence.

In a statement on Tuesday, Roberts confirmed the authenticity of the document written in February and said: “To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed.”

He added: “I have directed the marshal of the court to launch an investigation into the source of the leak.”

Washington was sent into a whirl of speculation over who was responsible for the biggest leak in the modern history of the court – the judicial equivalent of “Deep Throat”, the FBI source that disclosed secrets about the Watergate scandal – and whether they should be considered a leaker or a whistleblower.

Some said it was probably a law clerk for one of the court’s liberal justices who wants to put Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion in the public domain in the hope that, witnessing the fierce backlash, one of the conservatives on the court might change his or her vote.

Others guessed it might be a source on the conservative side wanting the justices to be on record so they will feel locked in and unwilling to change in case they been seen as caving in. A third possible motive was floating the decision early to take the sting out of the final, incendiary announcement expected next month.

Edward Fallone, an associate professor at Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, said: “It’s unprecedented. Even those few instances where a law clerk, after leaving the court, wrote a ‘tell-all’ book was viewed as unprecedented then, but for a draft opinion in the midst of the process to come out, I can’t think of any single example.”

The source remains a mystery, but Fallone suggested a law clerk is most likely. “They tend to be younger and more passionate. I would assume other staff with access to draft opinions are a little more professional and discreet. But we just don’t know yet.”

Read the full story:

Updated

Here’s another look at my colleague Archie Bland’s useful explainer about the supreme court’s leaked draft ruling on abortion rights, specifically what happened, and why it matters:

Interim summary

Time to catch our breath and take stock of where we are on a hugely busy day focused on the supreme court’s draft ruling, which if confirmed would end almost half a century of abortion rights in the US.

A maelstrom of furious reaction has followed Politico’s scoop, published on Monday night:

  • Chief justice John Roberts wants to know who leaked Justice Samuel Alito’s draft ruling overturning Roe v Wade, branding the act as a “betrayal” and promising a full inquiry.
  • Speaking to reporters on his way to Alabama, Joe Biden said the draft ruling is “really quite a radical decision ... a fundamental shift” in the supreme court’s previous position on abortion.
  • Susan Collins, the Republican senator who voted to confirm two of Donald Trump’s three picks to the supreme court because they promised her abortion rights were settled law, says the justices’ new stance is “inconsistent” with what they previously said.
  • In an earlier White House statement, Biden said the government must protect a woman’s right to abortion.
  • But any attempt in the US Senate to codify abortion rights looks doomed to failure because Democrats cannot muster the 60 votes they need. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer is promising a vote anyway: “Every American is going to see which side every senator stands”.

We’ve plenty more coming up, including Biden speaking this afternoon at a missile production factory in Alabama.

Updated

Lisa Murkowski, the Republican Alaska senator who voted against confirming Brett Kavanaugh to the supreme court, but supported the other Trump picks Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, told reporters she was “shaken” by the panel’s draft ruling on abortion.

In a huddle with reporters in the Capitol building, Murkowski, who along with fellow Republican senator Susan Collins of Maine has expressed support for women’s rights, said:

I really find it shocking that this would happen. I understand it is unprecedented.

The second point is Roe is still the law of the land. We don’t know the direction that this decision may ultimately take but yes, it goes in the direction that this leaked copy has has indicated, I will just tell you that it rocks my confidence in the court right now.

Murkowski and Collins would be the main two senate Republicans that Democrats would attempt to court when, as the majority leader Chuck Schumer has promised, abortion rights comes up for a legislative vote.

But with almost certainly no other Republicans on board, the move is doomed to failure. Especially since Joe Biden appears to have ruled out busting the filibuster (more on that in a moment...)

“I am angry, upset and determined,” said Massachusetts Democratic Senator and previous presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren in Washington DC, a little earlier, in the vicinity of the supreme court, as she vibrated with controlled rage.

She said: “The United States Congress can keep Roe vs Wade the law of the land, they just need to do it.”

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren joins protesters demanding the retention of abortion rights afforded under the supreme court decision Roe vs Wade, outside the court building in Washington a little earlier today.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren joins protesters demanding the retention of abortion rights afforded under the supreme court decision Roe vs Wade, outside the court building in Washington a little earlier today. Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

She’s referring to the Women’s Health Protection Act, which fell down in the Senate in March because of zero Republican support and, even, one Democrat (guess which one), opposing.

A reporter intercepts Warren and says they have never seen her so angry.

Warren, clearly struggling to contain her fury, goes on: “The Republicans have been working towards this day for decades. They have been out there plotting, carefully cultivating these supreme court justices so that they could have a majority on the bench who would accomplish something that a majority of Americans do not want.

“Sixty-nine percent of people across this country, across this country, red states and blue states, old and young, want Roe vs Wade to remain the law of the land. We need to do that and we have a right.”

At this point a man can be heard trying to shout over her, but it’s not clear if he’s media or a protester. Nevertheless, she persisted.

“Extremists? We’ve heard enough from the extremists. And we’re tired of it,” she said.

Updated

Furious women surged to the steps of the US supreme court to decry news in a leaked document indicating that the conservative-controlled court intends to overturn abortion rights provided nationally under the 1973 Roe vs Wade ruling.

Protesters rushed to demonstrate outside the building’s majestic marble columns in Washington DC just minutes after the news broke late on Monday night, and more were there on Tuesday, with larger protests planned.

Anti-abortion demonstrators prayed and celebrated but pro-choice protesters lit candles, chanted in support of reproductive rights and shouted expletives about Samuel Alito, the rightwing justice on the court who wrote the opinion that was leaked to Politico.

Under cloudy skies that threatened rain on Tuesday, Haley Lund, from Woodbridge, Virginia, held a sign, standing in front of a metal gate guarding the last step in front of the court, which said: “Abortion is healthcare.”

“This terrifies me. I could not sleep, so I figured I should be here, where it could possibly make a difference or at least make someone aware,” she told the Guardian.

“It’s an important issue for me because of women’s reproductive rights, but this opens a floodgate for everyone … like the right to privacy, to due process, the right that we’re innocent until proven guilty. All of that can go away if this goes away,” she added.

Anti-abortion activists chanted: “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Roe v Wade has got to go”, leading to tense exchanges between the two groups.

Barriers were erected in front of the court shortly after the leaked report was made public.

Robin Galbraith, of Maryland, told the Guardian on Tuesday: “I’m the mother of two twentysomething children, and I’ve been fighting for healthcare rights, abortion rights, since I was 20 and I did not bring my children into this world to have their rights taken away.”

She added that she was retired and could normally sleep in but on Tuesday launched herself out of bed at 5am to get to the court to protest, she was so motivated, and if the final decision – expected from the court in June when they announce the main decisions from their previous term – overturns Roe that she would be out campaigning to help the Democrats keep and increase their hold of the US Senate.

The size and vociferousness of the crowds are more usual just before or just after a major supreme court decision.

The Guardian’s protests picture gallery.

Updated

White House press secretary Jen Psaki is talking to reporters now on Air Force One as she accompanies Joe Biden to Alabama, where the US president is visiting a Lockheed Martin facility that is manufacturing weapons that are currently being supplied to Ukraine in its efforts to repel the Russian advance after its neighbor invaded in February.

By the way, for full coverage of the war in Ukraine, please click on our global live blog, which Guardian teams are running around the clock.

Of course Psaki is immediately asked by reporters aboard today’s flight about more on Biden’s reaction to the Roe news, and his noting, when he spoke on the tarmac near Washington earlier, that there has been much riding on the US Congress to pass legislation entrenching the right to an abortion in federal legislation.

Psaki pointed out that there has only very recently been a vote in congress on the relevant legislation - the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA).

“There has been a vote on this, it failed,” she said.

In March, West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin sided with Republicans to vote down the bill.

So Psaki said that even if Democrats acted to change the filibuster, which requires a 60-vote majority in the Senate to pass most legislation, with Manchin opposed they would not even have had a simple majority to pass the WHPA. The US Senate is currently split 50-50 between Democrat and Republican seats (with Dems having the edge in situations where a simple majority is fine, such as a supreme court nomination or certain types of financial legislation, via the swing vote of the president of the Senate, vice president Kamala Harris).

Nevertheless, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has just announced that he will bring the bill up for another vote. It will fail, especially without a change in the filibuster rule, but Democrats are now keen to get lawmakers on the record on where they stand in relation to abortion rights.

Psaki said that Biden would be very happy to sign the bill into law if it could get through congress. She emphasized that the burden of abortion bans in US states primarily falls on low wealth women of color.

Health and human services secretary Xavier Becerra has condemned as “dangerous” the supreme court’s draft ruling and attacks nationwide on abortion rights.

Xavier Becerra.
Xavier Becerra. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

In statement posted to the HHS website, Becerra listed the steps the Biden administration had taken to support women and preserve their reproductive rights:

Patients make their own decisions about their own bodies. That’s their right.

I strongly believe in protecting and promoting access to health care - that includes sexual and reproductive health care, and that includes safe and legal abortion care.

Abortion remains legal today and patients can access care. The laws we have seen coming out of states that deny care are dangerous.

Becerra noted the health and human services department had launched a task force on reproductive health care and committed more than $250m for equitable family planning services.

The leaked US supreme court draft ruling is making waves overseas. My colleague Libby Brooks in Glasgow writes:

The leaked Roe document has sharpened calls for buffer zones around abortion providers in Scotland, as first minister Nicola Sturgeon stated that “the right of women to decide what happens to our own bodies is a human right”.

Sturgeon tweeted: “Experience tells us that removing the legal right to abortion doesn’t stop abortions happening - it just makes them unsafe and puts the lives of women at much greater risk.

Campaigners and opposition politicians have called on Sturgeon’s government to act immediately to create buffer zones to protect women seeking abortions targeted by anti-choice protesters. Back Off Scotland co-founder Lucy Grieve said that Sturgeon’s outrage “goes only so far”.

“There are real, tangible threats to abortion access in Scotland that are going unchallenged by her government,” she said.

“The women’s health minister, Maree Todd, claims that she wants Scotland to be world leading on women’s healthcare, yet her inaction is emboldening these protestors. If she cannot show courage and legislate on this issue, then she must step aside for somebody that will.”

Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell, the rival party leaders in the US Senate, gave their contrasting opinions about the supreme court abortion leak on the chamber floor this morning.

Schumer, the Democratic majority leader, promised to bring a vote on abortion rights to the senate floor:

This is as urgent and real as it gets. We will vote to protect a woman’s right to choose and every American is going to see which side every senator stands.

McConnell, the Republican minority leader, echoed his statement from earlier in the day, and was more interested in talking about the impact of the leak, urging justices to ignore the Democratic outcry:

The court should tune out the bad faith noise and feel completely free to do their job.

The California Democrat Adam Schiff has added his voice to those condemning the supreme court’s draft ruling on abortion.

In comments to the Guardian contributor Charles Kaiser, Schiff, a prominent congressman, said:

In abandoning decades of precedent, the draft opinion exposes the supreme court as no longer conservative, but now merely a partisan institution bent on imposing its anti-choice views on the rest of the country.

This decision, if made final, will be devastating for the healthcare of millions of women, even as it is destroys any semblance of devotion by the court to the law.

In a subsequent tweet, Schiff called on the Senate to act to enshrine women’s right to abortion into law.

Kaiser, author of The Gay Metropolis, a history of gay life in the US, blasted Samuel Alito, the supreme court justice who authored the now-confirmed draft ruling:

Alito’s opinion so blithely disregards past precedents, it could suggest a willingness to overturn previous court decisions enshrining certain fundamental rights for LGBTQ+ people.

One passage in particular sets off alarm bells for activists who think its reasoning could jeopardize the court’s decisions legalising sodomy and the right of members of the same sex to marry.

Alito cited those decisions - Lawrence v Texas and Obergefell v Hodges - and denigrated by saying that they used criteria ‘which at a higher level of generality could license fundamental rights to rights to illicit drug use, prostitution, and the like.

Supreme court chief justice Roberts confirms leaked document is authentic, orders investigation

Chief Justice John Roberts said moments ago that the supreme court’s marshal will investigate the source of the leak of the draft opinion on abortion, which is genuine and was published late Monday, and slammed the “egregious breach of trust”.

John Roberts (l) at Joe Biden’s state of the union address to Congress in 2022, with Brett Kavanaugh (r), as associated justice listed among the majority names in draft opinion leaked showing he favors overturning Roe.
John Roberts (l) at Joe Biden’s state of the union address to Congress in 2022, with Brett Kavanaugh (r), as associated justice listed among the majority names in draft opinion leaked showing he favors overturning Roe. Photograph: Al Drago/UPI/REX/Shutterstock

In what is regarded as an unprecedented leak, of a draft majority opinion to overturn the 1973 Roe v Wade decision legalizing the right to an abortion in America, Roberts was not among the five names listed in the majority.

In the court’s first public reaction since the scoop by Politico, Roberts said: “Although the document described in yesterday’s reports is authentic, it does not represent a decision by the Court or the final position of any member on the issues in the case.”

In a statement, he added: “To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed.”

Updated

'It's really quite a radical decision ... a fundamental shift': Biden on leaked Scotus opinion

Joe Biden has just spoken to reporters about the staggering abortion news, while on his way from the White House to take a flight to Alabama to review the making of heavy weapons destined for Ukraine.

The US president said of the leaked provisional decision, essentially, that: “If this decision holds, it’s really quite a radical decision ... it’s a fundamental shift in American jurisprudence.”

He also said that if this is the final decision that it has implications for “every decision in your private life” and will affect choices about who you may marry, whether you use contraception and family planning, how you raise your children.

More fully, Biden said: “It basically says all the decisions you make in your private life, who you marry, whether or not you decide to conceive a child, whether or not you can have an abortion, and a range of other decisions ... how you raise your child. Does this mean that in Florida they can decide to pass a law saying that same-sex marriage is not permissible, it’s against the law in Florida? It’s a fundamental shift in American jurisprudence.”

We’ll have more on the president’s words in a few moments. And also the latest from supreme court chief justice John Roberts. Stand by.

Updated

The pro-choice group Women’s March, which formed to organize the record protests that took place in Washington and elsewhere the day after Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration in 2017, is urging supporters to hold rallies all across the country.

In a statement, the group said:

For years, women in this country have been warning about the end of abortion. That day has arrived... this is a worst-case-scenario come to life. If and when this decision takes effect, the consequences will be unbearable - and, for many women, lethal.

That is no exaggeration. But it’s also no exaggeration to say that women will fight back like we always have. We won’t take this lying down.

The group is encouraging protests outside the supreme court, which sits near the US Capitol, on Tuesday during the day and more demonstrations outside “federal courthouses, federal buildings, town halls and town squares across the country” in the evening.

And two separate pro-choice marches are set to be staged by protestors in New York City on Tuesday evening, while a rally will be held in San Francisco.

Norma Gallegos, an organizer of the San Francisco protest, said the court’s “devastating attack on legal abortion is a call to hit the streets throughout the land”.

Read more:

Respected supreme court analysts Carl Tobias and Laurence Tribe have been sharing their thoughts.

Tobias, law professor at the University of Richmond in Virginia, believes there are more developments to come:

This might not be the final ruling. The justices usually confer after arguments and suggest how they would resolve a case and then the senior justices in the majority and minority work on drafts and circulate them to all members of the court.

Then the justices can attempt to persuade members who differ to change their votes. Usually justices do not change their initial positions. However, in some cases, especially high-profile and controversial ones, like those involving abortion, justices do change their positions, as chief justice [John] Roberts allegedly did in 2012 [in which the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, was upheld].

Tribe, a Harvard law professor, pointed to possible wider implications of the ruling by Justice Samuel Alito, if it stands as the court’s opinion:

It will unravel many basic rights beyond abortion and will go further than returning the issue to the states: It will enable a [Republican] Congress to enact a nationwide ban on abortion and contraception.

Updated

Mitch McConnell, the senate minority leader, has issued a statement concentrating on the leak of the supreme court’s draft decision on abortion rights, rather than its content.

Mitch McConnell.
Mitch McConnell. Photograph: Stefani Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

The Kentucky Republican slammed “the radical left” he accuses of attacking the court’s independence:

Last night’s stunning breach was an attack on the independence of the supreme court. By every indication, this was yet another escalation in the radical left’s ongoing campaign to bully and intimidate federal judges and substitute mob rule for the rule of law.

The disgraceful statements by President Biden, Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer refuse to defend judicial independence and the rule of law and instead play into this toxic spectacle. Real leaders should defend the court’s independence unconditionally.

This lawless action should be investigated and punished as fully as possible. The chief justice must get to the bottom of it and the department of justice must pursue criminal charges if applicable.

All nine Justices should tune out the bad-faith noise and feel totally free to do their jobs following the facts and the law where they lead.

Updated

Collins: Draft abortion decision 'inconsistent' with justices' assurance

Here’s a brief statement from Susan Collins, Republican senator for Maine, about the leak of the supreme court’s draft decision.

Senator Susan Collins.
Senator Susan Collins. Photograph: Reuters

Collins, one of the more moderate Republicans in the chamber, explained her votes to confirm Donald Trump picks Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh as supreme court justices in 2017 and 2018 respectively by stressing they had given her assurances that they saw Roe v Wade as “settled law”, and that she had full confidence they would not vote to overturn it.

If this leaked draft opinion is the final decision and this reporting is accurate, it would be completely inconsistent with what Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh said in their hearings and in our meetings in my office.

Obviously, we won’t know each justice’s decision and reasoning until the supreme court officially announces its opinion in this case.

Collins did not subsequently vote to confirm Trump’s third and final pick, Amy Coney Barrett, in 2020, with analysts noting her vote was not crucial.

Justifying her decision to back Kavanaugh in a lengthy 2018 statement, Collins said she had received his guarantee that he saw long-established law as stare decisis, which binds courts to follow legal precedents set by previous decisions, and “not something to be trimmed, narrowed, discarded, or overlooked.”

Collins wrote: “I asked Judge Kavanaugh whether the passage of time is relevant to following precedent. He said decisions become part of our legal framework with the passage of time and that honoring precedent is essential to maintaining public confidence”.

Updated

Democrats failed in March to enshrine abortion rights into federal law, their attempt fueled by rapidly spreading restrictions passed by state legislatures across the country.

The Democratic West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin joined Republicans to block the bill in the US Senate, the effort falling 14 votes short of the 60 needed.

Joe Manchin.
Joe Manchin. Photograph: Reuters

While Democrats expected the bill to fail, they said brought the measure forward at a perilous moment for abortion rights to ensure votes were recorded.

“Abortion is a fundamental right and women’s decisions over women’s healthcare belong to women, not to extremist rightwing legislators,” said the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, at the time.

With nothing having changed in the Senate, any further attempts to nullify the reported supreme court decision through legislation look certain to fail.

Manchin is the key figure in the divided 50-50 chamber, and he is on record as stating he would not support eliminating the filibuster, the procedural process that requires at least 60 senators for legislation to advance.

Here’s my colleague Jessica Glenza’s story from March:

Updated

Biden: government must protect a woman's right to choose

The White House has just released this statement from Joe Biden:

We do not know whether this draft is genuine, or whether it reflects the final decision of the Court.

With that critical caveat, I want to be clear on three points about the cases before the Supreme Court.

First, my administration argued strongly before the Court in defense of Roe v. Wade. We said that Roe is based on ‘a long line of precedent recognizing ‘the Fourteenth Amendment’s concept of personal liberty’… against government interference with intensely personal decisions.’ I believe that a woman’s right to choose is fundamental, Roe has been the law of the land for almost fifty years, and basic fairness and the stability of our law demand that it not be overturned.

Second, shortly after the enactment of Texas law SB 8 and other laws restricting women’s reproductive rights, I directed my Gender Policy Council and White House Counsel’s Office to prepare options for an Administration response to the continued attack on abortion and reproductive rights, under a variety of possible outcomes in the cases pending before the Supreme Court. We will be ready when any ruling is issued.

Third, if the Court does overturn Roe, it will fall on our nation’s elected officials at all levels of government to protect a woman’s right to choose. And it will fall on voters to elect pro-choice officials this November. At the federal level, we will need more pro-choice Senators and a pro-choice majority in the House to adopt legislation that codifies Roe, which I will work to pass and sign into law.

Updated

We’re waiting for the first reaction from the White House to today’s reported supreme court leak, which could come in the form of an official statement, or snatched words with reporters from Joe Biden on the south lawn as the president departs for a trip to a missile production factory in Alabama a little later this morning.

The vice-president, Kamala Harris, is also likely to have plenty to say at tonight’s We Are Emily conference and gala in Washington DC, an event celebrating “women taking the lead in defending our democracy and our right to reproductive freedom”.

While we wait, here’s a look back at Biden’s forthright comments from last year, when he condemned the US supreme court’s “unprecedented assault” on abortion rights following its decision not to block extreme legislation from Texas:

Updated

Here are some Twitter reactions to the supreme court news from politicians of both parties.

Raphael Warnock, Democratic senator for Georgia:

Elizabeth Warren, Democratic senator for Massachusetts:

Michael Bloomberg, Democratic former mayor of New York:

Marco Rubio, Republican senator for Florida:

Eric Swalwell, Democratic congressman for California:

Hillary Clinton, Democratic former senator for New York, and former presidential candidate:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democratic congresswoman for New York:

Gavin Newsom, Democratic governor of California:

Ted Cruz, Republican senator for Texas:

Notre Dame Law School professor Richard W Garnett, a supreme court expert who clerked for the late chief justice William Rehnquist during the 1996-97 term, says the leaking of the draft document represents a “gross betrayal of trust”.

In a statement to the Guardian, Garnett said:

Most court-watchers have been expecting that, in the pending Dobbs case, a majority of the justices will vote to uphold Mississippi’s abortion regulation and to squarely overrule the earlier Roe and Casey decisions. And, it is unlikely that any observers or commentators familiar with the case are actually surprised by the possibility that Justice Alito has drafted a majority opinion stating that those decisions were ‘egregiously wrong’.

In any event, however, for an employee or member of the Court to intentionally leak a draft opinion would be a gross betrayal of trust, particularly if the leak were an effort to advance partisan aims or to undermine the Court’s work and legitimacy.

Whatever our views on particular legal questions, we should all hope that the justices will not be swayed or influenced by such efforts.

Supporters of abortion rights reacted with outrage to the leak on Monday night of a supreme court decision overturning Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling which has safeguarded the right till now.

According to Politico, the draft ruling, written by Samuel Alito, is supported by Clarence Thomas and the three conservative justices appointed by Donald Trump: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

It would also overturn Planned Parenthood v Casey, a 1992 decision which upheld Roe.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Photograph: ZUMA Press Wire Service/REX/Shutterstock

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House, said:

If the report is accurate, the supreme court is poised to inflict the greatest restriction of rights in the past 50 years – not just on women but on all Americans.

The Republican-appointed justices’ reported votes to overturn Roe v Wade would go down as an abomination, one of the worst and most damaging decisions in modern history.

Several of these conservative justices, who are in no way accountable to the American people, have lied to the US Senate, ripped up the constitution and defiled both precedent and the supreme court’s reputation.

Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Senator Elizabeth Warren. Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts senator and former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, said an “extremist supreme court” was poised to “impose its far-right, unpopular views on the entire country:

It’s time for the millions who support the constitution and abortion rights to stand up and make their voices heard. We’re not going back – not ever.

If confirmed, the ruling would make abortion rights a state matter. As many as 26 Republican-run states are poised to end or restrict access.

Congress could codify Roe into law but it would require scrapping the filibuster, the Senate rule that requires a 60-vote majority for most legislation. That seems unlikely, given the 50-50 split in the chamber and opposition from moderate Democrats such as Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

Republican senators including Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who have expressed concern over abortion rights, were slower to react to the Politico report than their Democratic counterparts. Their support would be needed for filibuster reform.

Read more:

Here is an extract from a piece by US columnist Moira Donegan:

In a way, the leaked opinion didn’t tell us anything we did not already know: these are the last days of reproductive freedom in America, and most states will soon ban abortion outright, or restrict it so onerously that it is inaccessible within their borders. But Alito’s draft opinion nevertheless represents about as odiously maximalist an approach as the court could have taken.

The opinion does not just overturn Roe and Casey; it expresses outright contempt for the notion that the constitution protects bodily autonomy for women. It articulates a rigid and unchanging vision of individual rights, one in which only those freedoms with robust historical precedent and explicit enumeration in the text of the constitution will be recognized by the court.

[...]

The question at hand is whether half of the country will have control over their own insides, or whether the government can be so intimate and torturous that it can enforce its will even inside their own organs. And, in turn, the question is whether she can have the dignity and the freedom to choose her own family, to shape her own life – or whether that freedom is withheld based on her sex.

Some have raised doubts about whether America can call itself a democracy, now that policymaking power has been largely taken over by the unelected courts – whose decisions, like this one, are so radically out of step with, and indifferent to, public opinion. But it is also worth wondering whether any country can call itself a democracy that does not protect abortion rights.

In making abortion illegal, the court is imposing a legal status that is so cruel, so personal, and so life-altering on half its population, that those subject to this imposition cannot be called free. Is there any condition more essential to democratic citizenship than a person’s control over her own body? Can we call ourselves a free country without it?

Read the full column here:

Who could be most affected by changes to US abortion laws?

This piece from BBC Reality check looks at those most likely to be impacted by any change.

It states:

Limiting abortion access would disproportionately impact younger women, poorer women and African-American women, as these groups are more likely to seek an abortion, according to official data.

The majority of women having abortions in the US are in their 20s.

Rachel Jones, a senior researcher at the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-choice research group told the BBC:

The typical abortion patient is in their 20s, doesn’t have a lot of money and has one or more children.

Research by the institute has shown that 75% of women in the US who have an abortion are classified as low income or poor (based on official US poverty definitions).

Dr Antonia Biggs, a researcher at the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health says:

Structural inequities - including living on low incomes and limited access to health insurance - all contribute to the higher rates of abortions among people of colour.

Black people make up 13% of the US population, but black women receive more than a third of the country’s reported abortions and Hispanic women about a fifth.

As abortion bans proliferate in states around the US, some state legislatures are likely to go even further than just ending abortion in their jurisdictions – taking aim at the growing numbers of people seeking procedures and medications out of state, experts warn.

If the supreme court weakens or overturns Roe v Wade – the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion – in an upcoming decision on Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, states will be left with a confusing patchwork of laws that will likely lead to legal challenges.

A fresh wave of restrictions will probably center around patients who leave their state to obtain legal abortions in other states, or who order medications to manage their abortions at home.

Lawmakers in Missouri weighed legislation early this year that would allow individuals to sue anyone helping a patient cross state lines for an abortion. The law was ultimately blocked in the state’s legislature, but experts expect such legislation to gain more support if Roe is weakened or overturned.

David Cohen, professor at Drexel University’s Kline School of Law and lead author of a forthcoming article on cross-state legal issues that could arise in the abortion context. said:

I think states are not going to rest with just saying ‘there won’t be abortions in our state.’ I think they’re going to want to ban abortion for their citizens as much as they can, which would mean stopping them from traveling

We’re going to see state-against-state battles that are really going to divide this country even deeper on this issue.

Read the full story here:

Updated

In the UK a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that Britain supports the right for women to have access to safe and legal abortions

After being asked about the possible move by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a decision legalising abortion, the spokesman said:

My understanding is this comes from a leaked document rather than an official decision and of course, as you’d expect, it’s a matter for the U.S. courts in general.

The UK fully supports women’s reproductive rights globally ... including the right to access safe and legal abortion.

A lot of ongoing shock and surprise at the leaking of the US supreme court’s draft decision on Roe v Wade.

Neal Katyal, who has argued dozens of cases before the court and as a young lawyer worked for Justice Stephen Breyer, compared the apparent leak to The New York Times’ 1971 publication of the government’s secret history of the Vietnam War, known as the Pentagon Papers.

Katyal wrote on Twitter:

This is the equivalent of the pentagon papers leak, but at the Supreme Court. I’m pretty sure there has never ever been such a leak. And certainly not in the years I’ve been following the Supreme Court.

Only a handful of people have access to decisions before they’re published, which - usually - makes the Supreme Court watertight.

That group includes only the justices themselves and the small group who work for them, the young lawyers who work for the justices as clerks for a year. They all sign pledges of confidentiality.

Still, there have been leaks before, though perhaps not of this magnitude.

In fact, as CNN’s Sara Sidner points out - the original Roe V Wade decision was also leaked, a few hours before it was published:

This story from the Washington Post has the fascinating story behind that.

Voices on both sides of the political divide in the US have reacted with shock to the leak of the US supreme court’s draft decision on Roe v Wade. Here is a selection:

Alexis McGill Johnson, Planned Parenthood president

This leaked opinion is horrifying and unprecedented, and it confirms our worst fears … While we have seen the writing on the wall for decades, it is no less devastating, and comes just as anti-abortion rights groups unveil their ultimate plan to ban abortion nationwide… [W]e will continue to fight like hell to protect the right to access safe, legal abortion.

Hillary Clinton, former US secretary of state

This decision is a direct assault on the dignity, rights, and lives of women, not to mention decades of settled law. It will kill and subjugate women even as a vast majority of Americans think abortion should be legal. What an utter disgrace.

Elizabeth Warren, Democratic senator

An extremist supreme court is poised to overturn #RoeVWade and impose its far-right, unpopular views on the entire country. It’s time for the millions who support the constitution and abortion rights to stand up and make their voices heard. We’re not going back, not ever.

Ken Paxton, Republican Texas attorney general

I hope that Scotus returns the question of abortion where it belongs: the states. This is why I led a 24-state coalition in support of MS’s law banning them after 15 wks. I’ll [continue] to ensure that TX protects the unborn and pray for the end of abortion across our nation.

Tom Cotton, Republican senator

The supreme court and the DoJ must get to the bottom of this leak immediately using every investigative tool necessary. In the meantime, Roe was egregiously wrong from the beginning and I pray the court follows the constitution and allows the states to once again protect unborn life.

Josh Hawley, Republican senator

The left continues its assault on the supreme court with an unprecedented breach of confidentiality, clearly meant to intimidate. The justices mustn’t give in to this attempt to corrupt the process. Stay strong. I will say, if this is the court’s opinion, it’s a heck of an opinion. Voluminously researched, tightly argued, and morally powerful.

Find more reaction here:

If you are just catching up with the news this morning, this explainer from my colleague Archie Bland is extremely useful:

Updated

Leaked draft shows preliminary vote to overturn Rode v Wade passed

The Supreme Court is poised to overturn the most fundamental rulings in US law that enshrined the right to abortion nationwide, according to a leaked draft opinion.

The draft opinion, reported by Politico late on Monday night, seeks to strike down the landmark Roe v Wade 1973 ruling and a subsequent 1992 decision – Planned Parenthood v Casey – that largely upheld the right to abortion.

Justice Samuel Alito - a George W. Bush nominee – wrote the opinion and it was signed by four of the other Republican-appointed justices – Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. While the ruling is not final and could change, that gives it a majority on the nine-member court.

Questions have been raised around the authenticity of the leak, which would be the most serious breach in the court’s history. The supreme court and the White House have declined to comment.

However, the draft opinion runs 98 pages, including a 31-page appendix of historical state abortion laws, and includes 118 footnotes and legal experts have suggested it looks legitimate.

Alexis McGill Johnson, the president of Planned Parenthood, said the leaked opinion “is horrifying and unprecedented, and it confirms our worst fears”. Hillary Clinton described it as an “utter disgrace”.

Good morning, and welcome to the US Live Blog. We will be with you today to cover this critical moment in US history.

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