Rachel Lang
Hacking collective Anonymous has issued a chilling message to the US Supreme Court after leaked documents indicated that five Justices could be gearing up to repeal America's landmark abortion ruling.
"Repealing Roe v Wade isn't going to go the way SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the US) or the GOP (the Republican Party) thinks it's going to go," Anonymous warned on social media.
"Play with fire, get burned. Don't say we didn't warn you. Expect us."
The 1973 landmark Roe v Wade case granted US women the right to access to safe medical abortions.
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However, repealing the ruling would return legislative rights over women's uteruses to the US states instead of it being a federal mandate.
The loss of Roe v Wade could therefore mean state-by-state restrictions on abortions, or it could see the practice banned altogether, regardless of circumstance.
Anonymous' warning comes after an initial draft majority opinion written by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was leaked in a major Supreme Court breach.
The leaked ruling would also disavow the following 1992 decision, Planned Parenthood v Casey, which largely maintained the right for US women to have broad access to abortions.
Justice Alito wrote in the leaked document: "Roe was egregiously wrong from the start.
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"Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences.
"And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey (1992) have enflamed debate and deepened division."
Four other Republican-appointed Justices - Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett - voted in favour of Justice Alito in the conference.
The document's release heralds the biggest-ever leak in US Supreme Court history.
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Chief Justice John Roberts said there will be now an investigation into the leak.
"This was a singular and egregious breach of that trust that is an affront to the Court and the community of public servants who work here," Roberts said in a statement.
"I have directed the Marshal of the Court to launch an investigation into the source of the leak."
The explosive leak has sparked rallies across the US, including in the cities of New York, Boston, Nashville, Dallas, New Orleans and San Francisco.
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Protesters were out in force outside the US Supreme Court, according to a report by the Guardian.
Chants of 'abortion is healthcare' were carried by those rallying against the repeal.
Signs were also carried, that read 'Justices get out of my vagina', 'Legal abortion once and for all', and 'We won’t go back'.
The final ruling of the court will be made in June.