Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Keenan examines how Supreme Court justices could plan to repeal abortion rights, which companies are supporting their employees and enabling abortion access, and the responses from politicians seeking to codify Roe v. Wade.
Video Transcript
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– Welcome back to “Yahoo Finance Live,” everyone. Politico’s leaked draft documents from the US Supreme Court signaling it will overturn Roe versus Wade have been confirmed as authentic by Chief Justice Roberts. Well, Yahoo Finance’s legal reporter Alexis Keenan joins us now. So, Alexis, what’s in that draft decision and what are the implications if it stands?
ALEXIS KEENAN: Right. So this decision is in the matter of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. That’s the case at issue. And what it appears in this draft– now, we should say, it’s just a draft, this is not the final order, things could change– it appears to overturn that landmark decision Roe v. Wade, that 1973 decision, that is also affirmed by another case, a later case, Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Together, those are the cases that virtually guarantee the right for Americans, for American women, to obtain an abortion. That’s a federal-level law.
So, at the heart of the Dobbs case is the constitutionality of a Mississippi law that was passed, and it bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. So, under the reasoning in this draft, in this leaked draft, that kind of law would be OK. What the– Justice Alito is writing here– he’s the one who has penned this preliminary majority– he’s saying that that law would be OK, and, really, that the authority to regulate these reproductive rights should go back to the states, that it shouldn’t be happening at the federal level.
In writing that decision, Justice Alito said Roe v. Wade was egregiously wrong from the start. He goes on to say and explain how he thinks the power should be relegated back to the states.
Now, a number of companies have already taken some action to give their employees protections, who live in states where these types of laws have been passed. Mississippi is not the only one. There’s also Texas and Oklahoma.
Some of these companies, just to name a few, Amazon, Apple, Citigroup, Yelp, Salesforce, among some of the companies that are allowing for reimbursement of travel expenses for employees who need to go to another state to seek an abortion where it is legal at the juncture at which they find themselves wanting to have a procedure like that. Also, Lyft and Uber offering drivers who aid and abet– that would be the allegation there– that they would be able to get their legal expenses back if they have to defend themselves from an action in one of these states.
– Alexis, political reaction comes in from all over the spectrum. Bernie Sanders tweeting this, quote, “Congress must pass legislation that codifies Roe v. Wade as the law of the land in this country now. And if there aren’t 60 votes in the Senate to do it, and there are not, we must end the filibuster to pass it with 50 votes.” I know Joe Biden, the president, was asked about that this afternoon. Do they even have 50 votes, though?
ALEXIS KEENAN: Ha. Right. Who knows? But certainly falls short of the 60-vote supermajority that could be needed. And Sanders, there, referencing the filibuster mechanism. You can’t really get this done, either, through reconciliation.
So one avenue would be to amend the Constitution, right? Some people are calling for that. Otherwise, as Sanders is saying here, pass a new law. That certainly could be done.
But time is of the essence here. This judgment, this opinion from the Supreme Court is expected in June. We have about a month to go here, a month and change. So it will be very telling and very interesting to see not only how the country reacts– of course, we have elections coming up in November– but how corporate actors act as well.
– All right. Alexis Keenan, thanks so much.
