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‘Robbing anyone of reproductive autonomy is slavery’

Several professors have quickly formulated opinions about the expected Roe v. Wade reversal by the Supreme Court, which came to light this week due to an unprecedented leak now the focus of a federal probe.

Some professors have linked the development to slavery, likened it to government dictatorship, and suggested it could lead to a GOP ban on contraception.

Rutgers University Associate Professor Brittney Cooper, a scholar in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department, was quick to speak out, comparing the developing situation to some sort of reinstitution of slavery.

“This is a supreme tragedy. Abortion is and should remain a right for all child-bearing people. Robbing anyone of reproductive autonomy is slavery, a fact which Black women’s unique history of forced reproduction during slavery in this country illustrates in the starkest of terms,” Cooper’s May 2 tweet reads.

https://twitter.com/ProfessorCrunk/status/1521300407045214209

Harvard University Professor Laurence Tribe took to Twitter to connect Roe v. Wade’s future reversal to a complete GOP takeover, which he argues will include the banning of contraceptives.

“If the Alito opinion savaging Roe and Casey ends up being the Opinion of the Court, it will unravel many basic rights beyond abortion and will go further than returning the issue to the states: It will enable a GOP Congress to enact a nationwide ban on abortion and contraception,” Tribe’s May 2 tweet reads.

If the Alito opinion savaging Roe and Casey ends up being the Opinion of the Court, it will unravel many basic rights beyond abortion and will go further than returning the issue to the states: It will enable a GOP Congress to enact a nationwide ban on abortion and contraception.

— Laurence Tribe 🇺🇦 ⚖️ (@tribelaw) May 3, 2022

Tribe also said that the leak itself is “way, way less consequential” than the idea of Roe v. Wade being overturned in the United States: “It’s interesting enough to tweet about…briefly.”

Tribe told The College Fix via email he stands by his tweet. He also guided The College Fix to his latest opinion piece on the issue, in which he doubled down on the idea of a government takeover.

His Boston Globe op-ed, “The new Supreme Court’s iron fist,” reads in part:

“Reading the draft, written by Justice Samuel Alito, you quickly learn that all the rights people have long taken for granted — like the rights to decide whom to marry, whether to use birth control, with whom to have sex, how to raise your children, and an endless list of other freedoms — will no longer be protected unless you can point to language in the Constitution expressly guaranteeing those rights, or convince five Supreme Court justices that they are ‘deeply rooted in this nation’s history and tradition’ and ‘implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.’”

Yale University’s Law Professor Amy Kapczynski tweeted she believes a conservative is to blame for the leak.

“I clerked at the Supreme Court. Last night, I assumed a liberal clerk leaked the draft opinion overturning Roe. Now I think MUCH more likely it was leaked by a conservative fanatically committed to every word of Alito’s monstrous opinion,” she tweeted May 3.

I clerked at the Supreme Court. Last night, I assumed a liberal clerk leaked the draft opinion overturning Roe. Now I think MUCH more likely it was leaked by a conservative fanatically committed to every word of Alito’s monstrous opinion. **🧵**

— Amy Kapczynski (@akapczynski) May 3, 2022

As a part of the tweet’s thread, she explains the draft was from February. That being said, she does not believe a liberal would wait so long to leak it if they were “mad about it,” she tweeted.

Kapczynski also accused conservatives of breaking public trust to get what they want.

“Conservatives have shown that they are willing to break the public trust in the Court to get their way,” her thread reads.

The College Fix reached out to Cooper and Kapczynski for comment, but did not receive a response.

MORE: ‘Abort the patriarchal state’: Hundreds of UW students protest Roe v. Wade draft decision

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