Overturning Roe v. Wade could undo 'hundreds of years of progress,' CU law professor says

BOULDER, Colo. — The Supreme Court’s leaked draft opinion on a Mississippi abortion case has caused an uproar throughout the country.  

As it is written now, the opinion would strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, which protects a woman’s right to an abortion. 

9NEWS spoke with CU law professor Aya Gruber who shared her views on the draft opinion:

What was your opinion about the fact that the draft opinion was leaked to the media?

Gruber: "I think I had more of a reaction to the fact that it was here, the overturning of Roe v. Wade. When I saw the actual opinion itself, it was a jarring experience. This moment that we might have known in the back of our minds was coming – is here. It was a pretty strong opinion and a jarring opinion."

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What’s the significance of the fact that the draft opinion was leaked to the media? 

Gruber: "It is inconvenient for the court to have this leaked. They want to be able to have deliberations free of outside influences. It is unprecedented; there has never been a full opinion like this leaked, and the Supreme Court is going to have to grapple with that."

If this draft opinion holds, what other things could be deemed unconstitutional?

Gruber: "It signifies a real philosophical sea change on how you interpret the constitution and the viability of these rights we’ve been used to. Family planning, gay marriage, [the] right to obtain birth control, interracial marriage – rights for women and minorities. Various criminal statutes could be struck down. It’s very scary; it’s very scary to think of a rollback in rights. If that’s the idea, that the only fundamental rights we have are the few embedded in the framer’s time of the Constitution, we have undone hundreds of years of progress. The 1700s don’t have a great track record for protecting people from enslavement or protecting women from being able to do things like vote.   That’s the direction we’re pointing in, and it’s not a direction that is the future, it is the direction that is the past, and it’s very far in the past."

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