The US is preparing for the official release of the Supreme Court’s decision that would potentially overturn the landmark ruling that legalized abortion rights. US Vice President Kamala Harris met with legal experts this week to discuss the potential impact of the high court overturning Roe v. Wade.
Harris met with a group of law, privacy, and technology experts this week to discuss the possible impact that overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision would have. This comes as the country prepares for the court to officially release its decision on abortion rights, even after a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito was leaked to the media back in May.
Harris noted the possible impacts that the decision to strike down Roe v. Wade would have on privacy and information, as well as on in vitro fertilization. Should Roe v. Wade be overturned by the Conservative-majority court, abortion will no longer become a federal right, and states may individually choose to ban or allow women to have abortions.
“If Roe is overturned, I believe that states will then have the power to interfere in personal decisions. I do believe that there are three specific areas that we should be prepared to address,” said Harris in her remarks.
“One is the issue of data privacy and the potential that if Roe is overturned, that states that have criminalized abortion could subpoena a woman’s personal data,” said the vice president.
“I have a concern that if Roe is overturned, states with abortion bans could potentially restrict IVF if their definition of life begins at the point of fertilization,” said Harris, citing that states who have banned abortions will also restrict the use of certain kinds of contraception such as intrauterine devices or IUDs or the “Morning After” pill.
In other related news, Harris made history by becoming the first Black and South Asian woman to get elected to the vice presidency. With her historic achievement, Harris is also subject to a lot of hateful or offensive attacks from netizens on social media, especially on Twitter.
And a recent report by the nonpartisan platform Bot Sentinel found that Harris has received over 4,200 hate tweets or tweets suggesting targeted harassment on the platform, which is often unchecked by Twitter per its Hateful Conduct Policy from January to May 2022 alone.