Washington, D.C.— Today, U.S. Congressman Andy Barr released the following statement:

“The leak of the Supreme Court’s draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is a shameful violation of trust, unprecedented in the history of the Supreme Court, intended to politicize and undermine the credibility of the Court.  That is why I fully support Chief Justice Roberts’ call for a full and comprehensive investigation of this leak.

“At a minimum, the individual or individuals who perpetrated this reckless and unethical act should be held accountable for violating the duty of confidentiality in the Code of Conduct for Judicial Employees and disbarred.  Law clerks and other employees of the Supreme Court assume the highest duty of confidentiality given that the institutional integrity of the entire federal judiciary is at stake when they handle draft, preliminary and pre-decisional documents of the high Court.

“In July, I signed an Amicus Brief requesting the Supreme Court uphold the Mississippi abortion law at issue in Dobbs.  I also have consistently stated my view that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided.  Regardless of one’s personal views on whether and under what circumstances there should be a ‘right to abortion,’ nowhere in the text of the federal Constitution is such a purported right stated or even implied, as the text was originally understood.  So, if the Court follows through on its draft decision to uphold the Mississippi law and overturn Roe, I commend it for doing so. 

“Indeed, Roe represents the worst example of judicial activism in the history of the Court.  The Roe decision fueled decades of division in our country on the issue of abortion, depriving the American people the ability to decide the issue for themselves through the democratic process in the various states.  By overturning Roe, the majority would follow in the footsteps of prior Justices who, in the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education, courageously and correctly overturned their own disgraceful precedent in Plessy v. Ferguson.

“If the draft decision stands, each state will have the authority to define its own laws on abortion; and individual Americans, through their elected representatives, will have input on which laws are put into place.  At the federal level, I will continue to support pro-life policies in Congress such as the Hyde Amendment, to prohibit taxpayer funding of abortions, and the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which requires medical care for babies born alive in botched abortions.

“Ultimately, this case was always going to be weaponized by Democrats and the left-wing media to shift focus away from the failed policies of the Biden Administration that have caused a historic wave of inflation, chaos at our southern border, a weak foreign policy, and humiliation on the world stage.  Rest assured, I will maintain my commitment to address these crises and fight against the scourge of radical left-wing policies jeopardizing our prosperity.”