Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 6, 2022 / 15:24 pm
U.S. Rep. Chris Smith said Thursday that overturning the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion nationwide would signal a “new phase” — not the culmination — of pro-life efforts to protect the unborn.
“This is a new phase. It’s not the end, it’s the beginning of a national debate on abortion, and for the first time ever, the child will be paramount,” the New Jersey Republican told Raymond Arroyo on EWTN’s “The World Over” on May 5.
Smith, the co-chair of the House Pro-Life Caucus, was responding to the leak of a preliminary draft opinion in a Mississippi abortion case written by Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. that suggests that a conservative majority of the Supreme Court is prepared to overturn Roe and another pivotal case that affirmed it nearly 20 years later, Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has ordered an investigation into the leak, and emphasized in a statement earlier this week that the draft opinion, dated Feb. 10, does not reflect the current status of the case, which was expected to be decided at the conclusion of the court’s term at the end of June.