President Joe Biden accused the Supreme Court of “playing fast and loose with the facts” in the court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last month and return abortion legislation to the states.
Biden made the comments at the signing ceremony of an executive order to protect “access to reproductive health care services, including abortion and contraception.” He was joined by Vice President Kamala Harris and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.
The president repeatedly took shots at the court, claiming the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was not “driven by the Constitution.” He also said that two more pro-abortion senators needed to be elected in order to codify Roe.
Biden’s comments stand in contrast to what Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the Dobbs majority decision, where he said Roe was unconstitutional from the beginning.
“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. 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 have enflamed debate and deepened division,” Alito wrote.
Part of Biden’s executive order will involve creating a task force to work on abortion policy.
“The President has directed HHS and the White House Gender Policy Council to establish and lead an interagency Task Force on Reproductive Health Care Access, responsible for coordinating Federal interagency policymaking and program development,” a fact sheet from the White House says.
During his speech, Biden said that the Supreme Court was “out-of-control.”
“We cannot allow an out-of-control Supreme Court, working in conjunction with extremist elements of the Republican Party, to take away freedoms,” Biden said.
Biden also took aim at “extreme” Republican governors who he claimed had used the court’s decision “to impose some of the harshest and most restrictive laws seen in this country in a long time.” He said the laws supported by pro-life governors “will cost lives.”
The pro-life laws in question have exceptions to save the life of the mother. In addition, many states throughout the U.S., including New York and California, have more liberal abortion laws than many countries around the world, including in Europe.
Biden’s comments come just weeks after a man claiming he was going to kill Justice Brett Kavanaugh was arrested and charged with attempted murder.
A Department of Justice affidavit details how 26-year-old Nicholas Roske allegedly traveled to Kavanaugh’s home armed with weapons and burglary tools with the intent to kill the justice and prevent him from ruling on Second Amendment and abortion cases.
The White House’s fact sheet also details that federal workers will receive “paid sick leave can be taken to cover absences for travel to obtain reproductive health care.”
The Department of Defense also reiterated its commitment to “reproductive healthcare” in a memo sent out by the department. According to the White House, the memo says that “the Department will continue to provide seamless access to reproductive healthcare for military and civilian patients, as permitted by federal law.”