The real question at the heart of Roe v. Wade

There are two possible responses to the sound and fury currently emanating from Washington and from the American media after a leak indicated that the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade in the next couple of months. For House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Justice Samuel Alito’s 96-page draft judgment points to ‘the greatest restriction of rights in the past 50 years’. The Guardian’s Moira Donegan believes America is witnessing its ‘final days of reproductive freedom’. The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, always to be relied on for a ludicrous soundbite, declared that ‘London stands with women across the United States today’. Bernie Sanders is calling for Congress to overrule the Supreme Court. Commentators are rolling out their predictions of mass unrest, even civil war.

The first response is to point out that Justice Alito’s leaked opinion is scarcely a manifesto for a Margaret Atwood dystopia, or a social-conservative rallying cry, or an essay in bioethics.