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Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said Tuesday that the leak of his draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade made his colleagues in the majority on the U.S. Supreme Court “targets for assassination.” The leak last spring before the court eliminated the nationwide right to abortion was a “grave betrayal of trust by somebody, and it was a shock,” he said. The threat to the justices, he added, was not theoretical because it “gave people a rational reason to think they could prevent that from happening by killing one of us.” (Marimow, 10/25)

Justice Alito took issue with criticism of the court’s legitimacy in the wake of the Dobbs decision. “Everybody in this country is free to disagree with our decisions,” he said. “Everybody is free to criticize our reasoning, and in strong terms. And that certainly is done in the media, in writings of law professors and on social media.” “But to say the court is exhibiting lack of integrity is something quite different,” he said. “That goes to character.” (Liptak, 10/25)

Alito did not name liberal Justice Elena Kagan, but she has repeatedly expressed concerns in recent weeks, including in September at an event in Chicago when she said the court's legitimacy could be imperiled if Americans come to view its members as trying to impose personal preferences on society. ... Alito said: "Someone also crosses an important line when they say that the court is acting in a way that is illegitimate. I don't think anybody in a position of authority should make that claim lightly." (Chung, 10/26)

There are wide-ranging reasons why women may seek to terminate their pregnancies but for those struggling to make ends meet, finances are inevitably part of the calculation. Now many of them will be thrust into a circumstance they can’t afford as abortion bans and restrictions take hold in half the country after the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling guaranteeing abortion rights. (D'Innocenzio and Olson, 10/26)

The move, as the crow flies, was about two miles — just across the Red River into Minnesota. But for North Dakota’s last abortion provider, it was a world apart. “We were very sad to leave Fargo,” said Tammi Kromenaker, director of the Red River Women’s Clinic. “The state forced our hand. … It was time to hop the river.” (Peterson, 10/25)