Pro-choice activists publish home addresses of US Supreme Court judges

Pro-choice activists vent their fury over the possible overturning of Roe v Wade by releasing the addresses of Supreme Court judges.

Pro-choice demonstrators rally for abortion rights outside of the US Supreme Court in Washington.

Pro-choice activists have published the home addresses of US Supreme Court judges and urged supporters to turn up at a churches this Mother’s Day, as activists groups vent their fury at the prospect of the landmark Roe v Wade decision, which enshrined abortion rights in the US, being overturned.

Abortion has unexpectedly become one of the biggest political issues in the US after the surprise leak on Monday night (Tuesday AEST) of a Supreme Court opinion that would extinguish the 49-year-old ruling, leaving abortion rules up to the 50 states.

Six of the justices on the Supreme Court, half of whom were appointed by President Trump, are Catholic, while the Catholic Church has long opposed abortion.

Activist group Ruth Sent Us, named after the late, pro-choice justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, posted the Virginia and Maryland home addresses of six of the court’s allegedly more conservative justices, encouraging the group’s supporters to “join or lead a peaceful… Walk-by Wednesday” on May 11.

“Our 6-3 extremist Supreme Court routinely issues rulings that hurt women, racial minorities, LGBTQ+ and immigrant rights. We must rise up to force accountability using a diversity of tactics,” the group said on its website.

Other activist groups such as Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights, Pro Choice with Heart, and Strike for Choice have called for protests between May 8 and May 15, including for “actions outside of Churches” on Mother’s Day.

Pro-choice demonstrators rally for abortion rights outside of the US Supreme Court.

“We are aware that pro-abortion activists are threatening to disrupt Catholic Masses this Mother’s Day weekend,” a spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh Catholic diocese told local media on Friday.
The New York police department said it was beefing up security around the city’s churches this weekend. “Special attention must be paid in the vicinity of the Catholic Church especially during Sunday morning Mass,” the NYPD said in a statement to the New York Post on Friday.

Virginia’s lawyer general, Jason Miyares, warned potential protesters he would prosecute any obstruction of religious services. “No one has the right to interfere with the fundamental and natural right of all Virginians to practice their religion in peace,” he said in a statement.

Thousands of protesters have gathered outside the Supreme Court in Washington, now fenced off from the public with iron mesh, after the opinion by Justice Samuel Alito, which appeared to have the majority backing of the court, was leaked to the media.

Since then, a Catholic Church in Boulder, Colorado has been vandalised, while protesters have started to gather outside Justice Brett Kavanagh’s home in Chevy Chase, Maryland, according to the Washington Post.

President Biden, a Catholic who was against abortion earlier in his political career, has come under fire from Republicans and Catholics for not speaking out against the planned protests.

“The President believes in peaceful protest. He believes that’s part of our democracy and part of the history of the United States and this country,” outgoing White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Friday.

Pro-choice demonstrators rally for abortion rights.

Former Republican Vice President Mike Pence, speaking in Virginia on Saturday, said protests on Mother’s Day at churches were “totally unacceptable”

“I also think it‘s absolutely imperative, as I’m sure is the case, that we see to the safety and security of all the members of the Supreme Court of the United States,” he said.

Democrat strategists are hoping the prospect of losing the constitutionally enshrined right to abortion, which is supported by the majority of Americans according to most polls, will boost their chances in the November midterm elections, in which Republicans were expected to do well.

At least 20 Republican states are expected to restrict abortion rights further if Roe is overturned, including Texas, which last year banned abortion beyond six weeks of pregnancy, while most Republicans federally will oppose new Democrat plans to codify abortion rights in federal legislation.

High profile Senator Marco Rubio introduced a bill in Congress on Wednesday to prevent companies from claiming tax deductions for helping employees with abortion costs, as it emerged electric vehicle giant Tesla, along with other big US corporations, was assisting its employees in Texas to obtain abortions in other states.