CV NEWS FEED // A federal judge in Washington, D.C. on Monday issued a court order that suggests a constitutional “right to abortion” could still be found in legal precedents, a possibility that would effectively vacate the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade.
A right to abortion, argued U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly for the District of Columbia, could possibly be found in the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, while the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health only answered the position in Roe vs. Wade that such a right stems from the 14th Amendment.
Kollar-Kotelly wrote:
It is entirely possible that the Court might have held in Dobbs that some other provision of the Constitution provided a right to access reproductive services had that issue been raised. However, it was not raised.
“The case that rendered the judge’s remarks involves 10 defendants who are charged with conspiring to block access to an abortion clinic in Washington, D.C.,” the Washington Examiner reported.
Kollar-Kotelly tasked the parties in her case with presenting arguments for an established “right to abortion” by the middle of next month, POLITICO reports:
In particular, the judge is asking them to address ”whether the scope of Dobbs is in fact confined to the Fourteenth Amendment” and “whether, if so, any other provision of the Constitution could confer a right to abortion as an original matter … such that Dobbs may or may not be the final pronouncement on the issue, leaving an open question.”
The move by Judge Kollar-Kotelly is bound to raise a furor among pro-life Americans, as the pro-abortion Biden administration faces scrutiny over its Justice Department’s perceived pattern of throwing the book at abortion opponents.
“It’s a slap in the face, not only to Catholics and pro-lifers, but to the American people as a whole, whose involvement in the political process produced the Supreme Court that overturned Roe,” said CatholicVote Communications Director Joshua Mercer.
“I can’t even imagine most Democrats liking the look of this in the eyes of the American people. We have the D.C. insiders at the Justice Department looking more and more like partisan operatives, weaponizing our government to go after even the most legitimate pro-life activity,” Mercer added, “but now we’ve got the appearance of D.C. courts playing political ball on behalf of the abortion lobby too.”