WORCESTER, Mass. - Disappointed, upset, and frustrated are words Senator Harriette Chandler used to describe her feelings towards a leaked draft opinion impacting Roe v. Wade, which shows the potential of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the landmark case.
“First of all, I’d like to see this draft disappear. I don’t want to see a final version of this with all of these points included,” Chandler said on Tuesday. “That would be terrible.”
Abortion would still be legal in Massachusetts, but Chandler, who’s supported abortion rights for years, is concerned for women across the country.
“Women who come here from other states to have an abortion. What happens when they go back to their state?” Chandler asked. “Are they going to have a problem?”
Worcester Mayor Joe Petty called the potential for overturning the case horrific. Attorney General Maura Healey called abortion “a fundamental human right.”
On the other side of the argument, the Massachusetts Citizens for Life released a statement.
While acknowledging it’s only a draft, chairman David Franks said, “What we have wanted to say for decades in response to the shoddiness of Roe and (Planned Parenthood v. Casey), we find expressed here in argumentation of great cogency.”
“I know what it means to see women going in and out of abortion clinics, where they might as well be going to a butcher. They might be dead when they come out. We don’t want to go back to that,” Chandler said. “We really don’t want to go back to that.”
A rally was held outside of Worcester District Court on Tuesday in protest of the leaked draft opinion and Clark students at the rally said they’re not just concerned for women, but for anyone who may be nonbinary who can have children.