Wasserman Schultz Statement on Reported Draft Supreme Court Decision to Overturn Roe v. Wade

Washington, May 3, 2022
In 2006, I sounded the alarm bell as a witness in the U.S. Senate confirmation hearing of then-Judge Samuel Alito that, once confirmed, a Justice Alito would be a right-wing extremist who would thrust the government into doctors’ offices and dictate intimate family decisions. It is sickening that that prediction has apparently come true. As a mother of two young adult daughters who have had this constitutional right to make decisions about their own bodies for their entire lives, I am outraged and will fight until my last breath to prevent this loss and restore these sacred rights.

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Rep Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-23) issued this statement based on media reports that a draft Supreme Court decision would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling:

“In 2006, I sounded the alarm bell as a witness in the U.S. Senate confirmation hearing of then-Judge Samuel Alito that, once confirmed, a Justice Alito would be a right-wing extremist who would thrust the government into doctors’ offices and dictate intimate family decisions. It is sickening that that prediction has apparently come true. As a mother of two young adult daughters who have had this constitutional right to make decisions about their own bodies for their entire lives, I am outraged and will fight until my last breath to prevent this loss and restore these sacred rights. 

If true, Alito’s reported draft opinion to overturn the Roe v. Wade and Casey decisions will spark vigilantism and abortion bans nationwide. Half of all childbearing-aged women would lose control of their own body. The right-wing Supreme Court colleagues who reportedly will join Alito, lied to Senators and Americans about their views, and appear poised to join this legal abomination, one that will join America’s haunting legacy of destructive and appalling legal rulings that deny basic human and civil rights.  While history will shun this extremist court action, today we still possess abortion rights, and must defend this sacred power over our own bodies.

The disdain for precedent voiced in this draft Dobbs v. Jackson opinion means a return to dangerous, limited access to planning our own families, it means birth control, deciding who you can love or marry, and other basic civil rights protections are no longer safe. It also means death and injury for millions of women who will lose access to abortion around the country, as was the case before the Roe v. Wade decision. We must organize and protest right now and press the Senate to follow the House’s vote to codify Roe into law. This is a call to action. This summer, it is vital that we register and mobilize, and this fall, we must vote in numbers that will allow us to stop Republican extremists from denying women and families access to the basic reproductive rights that clear majorities of Americans support.”