President Joe Biden speaks at the White House in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Highlights
- US Supreme Court on Friday overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.
- Biden said its a sad day for America.
- He called on Congress to restore abortion protections into law.
Abortion ruling: US President Joe Biden on Friday said its a sad day for America after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade ruling of 1973, and killed abortion rights for women. “Let’s be very clear, the health and life of women across this nation are now at risk,” he said from the White House on what he called “a sad day for the court and the country.” He said he would do everything in his power to defend women's rights.
Biden called on Americans to elect more Democrats who would safeguard rights upended by the court’s decision. “This is not over,” he declared. He slammed the Republicans and the conservatives for celebrating the Supreme Court ruling. Noting that Republican-controlled states now had a clear path to ban abortion even in cases of incest or rape, he said “it just stuns me.”
He called on Congress to restore abortion protections into law and pointed to the November midterm elections, saying, “this fall, Roe is on the ballot”. He urged protests to be conducted peacefully and said violence is never acceptable. “This decision must not be the final word,” he said.
Biden's conflicted view on abortion
Although he defends abortion rights today, Joe Biden was personally never in favour of it. Soon after being elected to the U.S. Senate, Biden was pulled aside by a Democrat colleague who wanted to know how he was going to vote on abortion.
Biden explained that while he was personally opposed to abortion and would resist federal funding for the procedure, he didn’t want to impose his view on others by overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide.
"Legal precedents ensuring same-sex marriage, birth control under risk"
Joe Biden warned that other legal precedents ensuring same-sex marriage and access to birth control could also be at risk. “This is an extreme and dangerous path this court is taking us on,” he said. Biden added that “the court has done what it’s never done before — expressly taking away a constitutional right that is so fundamental to so many Americans.” The overturning of Roe v. Wade was not unexpected — a draft of the decision leaked nearly two months ago — but it still reverberated throughout Washington in what has suddenly become a new era in the country’s battle over abortion.
(With inputs from AP)
