Chuck Schumer, Democrats try to turn Roe v. Wade fate into rallying cry

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday turned a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion overturning the right to an abortion into a rallying cry to voters to back Democrats in the midterm elections.

Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he would hold a Senate vote on a bill next week to codify abortion rights into law to hold Senate Republicans accountable for approving the court’s conservative majority apparently poised to strike down Roe v. Wade.

“Every Republican senator who's supported Senator [Mitch] McConnell (R-Ky.), and voted for Trump justices pretending that this day would never come will now have to explain themselves to the American people,” Schumer said.

Schumer urged Americans who support abortion rights to vote in the midterm elections this fall.

“The elections this November will have consequences because the rights of 100 million women are now on the ballot,” he said.

Yet Schumer also faced new pressure from outside aligned groups and some Democratic senators to break the filibuster so Democrats could pass legislation with a simple majority to make abortion legal nationally.

But Schumer lacks votes to end the filibuster and did not address the issue.

The leaked draft, dated Feb. 10, will not be the final version of the Supreme Court’s opinion.

But it indicates five of the court’s nine members appear to support scrapping Roe in a case challenging a Mississippi law limiting abortions to the first 15 weeks of pregnancy.

McConnell, the Senate minority leader, and most other Republicans avoided talking about the possibility of the court overturning Roe, as advocated in the draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito.

Instead, they focused on the rare and damaging leak of the draft, which broke the confidentiality of the closed-door decision-making process by Supreme Court justices as they share and discuss views before settling on a final opinion.

“I think the story today is an effort by someone on the inside to discredit the institution,” McConnell said.

That was what both of Long Island’s Republican representatives to the U.S. House stressed in statements to Newsday.

“The unprecedented leak that came out of the U.S. Supreme Court is very concerning and needs to be investigated. Accountability must follow,” said Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley), the Republican designee for New York governor.

Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) called the leak, “an unprecedented violation of the sanctity of the Supreme Court and a clear attempt to politically influence its Justices on the precipice of a potential landmark decision. I unequivocally condemn this action.”

Democrats reacted with alarm at the prospect of the five GOP-appointed justices who voted for the draft opinion upending the right to abortion almost half a century after the Supreme Court upheld it in a 7-2 decision in 1973.

"Congress must enshrine into law the right to an abortion and Democrats must be willing to eliminate the filibuster to do so. As we approach the midterm elections, it is absolutely critical that Democrats turn out in record numbers to maintain our majorities," said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).

"The Supreme Court’s leaked majority opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade would have devastating consequences for women in this country,” Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove), a Democratic candidate for New York governor, said in a statement.

Suozzi said, if elected, he would “uphold NYS law that codifies reproductive freedom … ."

Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City) tweeted: “This is an outright attack on women’s equality and autonomy. Abortion is a right, and I am going to fight for it.”

Democrats aim to seize abortion rights as an issue to try to blunt low poll ratings for President Joe Biden and Democratic candidates, who have been buffeted by issues such as inflation, crime and new rounds of COVID-19 variants.

For at least the past three decades, more than half those surveyed — ranging from 52% to 66% — said they opposed the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, according to the Gallup poll. Gallup said 58% took the position both in 1989 and last year.

Schumer noted that McConnell and other Republicans weren't talking about the fact that the draft court opinion would overturn Roe.

“They’re almost like the dog that caught the bus,” Schumer told Newsday. “They know this is a political issue that could help us win seats in the Senate. All of our candidates are campaigning on this and the Republicans are running away from it."