Alito: Overturning Roe v. Wade took ‘courage’ from Supreme Court justices

Justice Samuel Alito said his vote to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022 alongside the Supreme Court’s six conservative justices took “courage.”

In a preview for his interview with CBS News, Alito was asked if there was a particular decision that took courage.

“Well, the leading example is Dobbs [v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization]. I think that required courage by all of the justices in the majority,” he said. “We didn’t know it at the time. We didn’t know it when we produced the draft that was leaked, but it required courage to go ahead with that because of the implications.”

“There are others. I mean, there are cases that have resulted in the loss of old friendships; that’s something that you have to live with,” Alito continued.

When asked if part of the job of a Supreme Court justice is to lose friends, receive death threats or wear a bulletproof vest, he responded, “It’s part of the job that you’re going to displease people by making decisions on controversial matters because one side or the other is going to really dislike you because of the decisions.”

“The physical threats and the harassment represent something new in our society and something that’s quite disturbing, and I think it’s a danger,” Alito concluded.

More than four years ago, the Supreme Court eliminated the nearly 50-year-old constitutional right to abortion and handed states authority to drastically limit or ban the procedure.

Alito wrote in the majority opinion — which was leaked a month before it was unveiled — “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” adding that its precedent “had damaging consequences.”

The decision drew public outcry with protests outside the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said at the time the decision marked “one of the darkest days our country has ever seen.”

An NBC poll from 2023 found 53 percent of Americans strongly disapprove of Roe v. Wade’s overturn.

Since then, many states across the U.S. have enacted near total bans on access to abortion with limited exceptions and imposed penalties for health professionals who aid in providing access to the procedure.