Court not ready to reverse Roe, Scalia says

WASHINGTON — South Dakota’s enactment of a ban on abortion has boosted hopes the new law might be the vehicle for a reversal of Roe vs. Wade, but Associate Justice Antonin Scalia said recently he doubts the current Supreme Court would overturn the 1973 opinion and doesn’t know if it ever will. Speaking to a gathering of Swiss professors and students March 8, Scalia, whose opposition to Roe is well known, said when asked if the highly criticized ruling would be reversed by the high court, “I have no idea. I have no idea whether it will be.

“[T]here are still five justices on our court who voted in favor of Roe vs. Wade,” Scalia told a group at the University of Freiburg. “So, if I had to guess, I would say, ‘Not yet — maybe not [ever] — but certainly not yet.’” Though Scalia said he did not have an official opinion on abortion, he said a right to the procedure “is not contained in the Constitution of the United States.”