Supreme Court Justice Barrett defends ‘Roe v Wade’ reversal, reflects on Catholic faith in new memoir

In her forthcoming memoir, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett defends the landmark 2022 decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, calling the 1973 ruling an “exercise of raw judicial power” that invented a constitutional right to abortion. 

In Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution, Barrett, a Catholic, argues that Roe had no grounding in American history or law and that abortion “had long been forbidden” in the nation’s legal tradition.

“The evidence does not show that the American people have traditionally considered the right to obtain an abortion so fundamental to liberty that it ‘goes without saying’ in the Constitution,” Barrett wrote, according to excerpts published by CNN. “In fact, the evidence cuts in the opposite direction. Abortion not only lacked long-standing protection in American law — it had long been forbidden.”

Barrett joined the majority in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which struck down Roe and returned authority to regulate abortion to the states. Pro-life advocates celebrated the ruling as a long-awaited victory after nearly 50 years of expanded abortion access.

In her memoir, Barrett pushes back on claims that her Catholic faith compromises her impartiality.

“Fortunately for the health of our country,” she wrote, according to CNN, “people of faith are not the only Americans with firm convictions about right and wrong. Nonreligious judges also have deeply held moral commitments, which means that they too face conflicts between those commitments and the demands of the law.”

The memoir, to be released by Sentinel Books, also underscores Barrett’s insistence on judicial duty over politics. 

“Swearing to apply the law faithfully means deciding each case based on my best judgment about what the law is,” she wrote. “If I decide a case based on my judgment about what the law should be, I’m cheating.”

Barrett will launch the memoir Sept. 9 at a Reagan Presidential Foundation event in Simi Valley, California.