North Shore Abortion Rights Rally Planned For Salem Tuesday Night

SALEM, MA — U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Salem) said he will be among those on hand for a rally in support of abortion rights in Salem Tuesday night following a leaked Supreme Court document indicating that the landmark Roe-v-Wade decision upholding abortion as a Constitutional right will soon be overturned.

Moulton said the event will take place at Old Town Hall on Derby Street in Salem starting at 5 p.m.

"Rally to support a women's right to choose," Moulton said on Tuesday. "Make your voice heard at this important moment."

Many state leaders from both parties came out in opposition to what appears to be the pending Supreme Court ruling that would essentially leave abortion rights up to elected officials instead of making it the law of the land.

(More On Patch: MA Among States With Abortion Protection If Roe V. Wade Falls)

"If tonight's reports are true, American women are on the brink of losing a fundamental right to make crucial healthcare decisions for themselves," Moulton said shortly after Politico broke the story with what the Supreme Court later confirmed is a draft decision overturning the 1973 ruling. "This decision would take women's rights back 50 years and put millions in danger by bringing back unsafe back-alley abortions.

"Decisions like this are the result of a politicized Supreme Court that puts ideology ahead of our constitutional rights. Rest assured, we will work to correct this injustice if it is carried out."

Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll — a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor — also reacted harshly to the pending verdict.

"Our fears have been realized and millions of lives will be put in danger by the court playing politics," she said in a Twitter post. "Now is not the time for empty rhetoric, we need leaders who will champion abortion rights by any means necessary."

Republican gubernatorial candidate Geoff Diehl and his Danvers Republican lieutenant governor running mate Leah Cole Allen said in a joint statement Tuesday afternoon that while they "do not form core policy decisions based on leaked first reports of Supreme Court decisions" they believe "non-federal issues are best left to the states."

"We both believe in and reaffirm the need to protect human life wherever and whenever possible," the Diehl-Allen campaign said. "We also reaffirm our concurrence with Governor Baker's veto of the so-called "Roe Act" last year — a state law which expands access to late-term abortions —recognizing that extreme bill as a radical move too far by state legislators here in our state.

"We have both been consistent in these positions throughout our campaigns and our time in public office, and we remain solid in our beliefs now. To the extent there is credibility to recent reports sourced to the Supreme Court, we will await the Court's final decision later this spring and assess it at this time."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)