President Joe Biden reacted to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in a speech to the nation on Friday afternoon.
“Today, the Supreme Court of the United States expressly took away a constitutional right from the American people that it had already recognized,” Biden said, per CBS News. “They didn’t limit it. They simply took away… this is not over.”
The 1973 opinion — which claimed that abortion is protected under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution — was overturned through the court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. An unknown individual leaked Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion in early May.
Biden pinned the overturn of Roe on his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, who reacted positively to the news earlier on Friday.
“It was three justices named by one president, Donald Trump, who were the core of today’s decision to upend the scales of justice and eliminate a fundamental right for women in this country,” Biden argued. “Make no mistake — this decision is a culmination of a deliberate effort over decades to upset the balance of our law. It’s a realization of an extreme ideology and a tragic error by the Supreme Court, in my view.”
Biden called Roe the “law of the land” and said that abortion is “on the ballot” in November. Yet Congress has failed to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act — a bill that claims to codify Roe — on multiple occasions due to moderates’ opposition in the Senate.
“The right to privacy, liberty, equality — they’re all on the ballot,” Biden said. “Until then, I will do all in my power to protect a woman’s right in states where they will face the consequences of today’s decision.”
Biden noted that many states would “try to ban or severely restrict access” to abortifacient medication. Indeed, Louisiana recently passed a bill applying fines and prison time for individuals who mail abortion pills. “Today I’m directing the Department of Health and Human Services to take steps to ensure these critical medications are available to the fullest extent possible,” Biden said.
“My administration will remain vigilant as the implications of this decision play out,” the commander-in-chief continued. “I’ve warned about how this decision risks the broader right to privacy for everyone. That’s because Roe recognized the fundamental right to privacy that has served as the basis for so many more rights that — we’ve come to take for granted that are engrained in the fabric of this country — the right to make the best decisions for your health, the right to use birth control, the right to privacy of a couple in their bedroom, for God’s sake, the right to marry the person you love.”
Other Democrats likewise condemned the Supreme Court’s decision.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said during a press conference that there was “no point in saying ‘good morning,’ because it certainly is not one.” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said that overturning Roe would deny women “the right to control their own bodies,” calling it “an outrage and in defiance of what the American people want.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) led pro-abortion protesters chanting that the Supreme Court is “illegitimate,” applauding and smiling as she called for Americans to get “into the streets.” She told CNN that the Supreme Court “chose to endanger the lives of all women and all birthing people in this country” and opted to “strip rights from men too.”