President Biden has always been a pro-choice Catholic. As in, he follows the Church’s teachings personally but politically he believes that every person has the right to make their own reproductive decisions. He has a record going back decades of supporting choice and pro-choice judges. Just keep that in mind whenever people are like “well Biden is Catholic, he doesn’t even like abortion.” He knows his faith doesn’t give him the right to impose his religious views on anyone. The Democratic Party is full of pro-choice Catholics in this way. Ted Kennedy was the same (and I’ve always believed Biden modeled his own philosophy on Kennedy’s). Anyway, President Biden’s reaction to the leaked Hobbs decision was to tell Americans that overturning Roe will lead to the rollback of even more American rights.
President Joe Biden said Tuesday that a “whole range of rights” beyond abortion are in question if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade.
“It’s really quite a radical decision,” Biden said in his first public comments about a leaked draft Supreme Court opinion indicating the high court may be on the cusp of upending the landmark 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion. “It’s a fundamental shift in American jurisprudence.”
Biden said the same arguments included in the draft opinion could also be used to strike down the right of gays and lesbians to marry as well as constitutional protections for birth control.
“Every other decision based on the notion of privacy is thrown into question,” Biden told reporters before flying to Alabama to tour a defense production facility. He said Roe v. Wade decided that the moment of conception is an open question, adding that any decision that makes a judgment on that question “goes way overboard.”
Earlier Biden released a statement calling on Congress to codify abortion rights and urged voters to elect lawmakers who would support those rights. He declined to say whether he would support changing Senate rules so legislation codifying the right to abortion could not be blocked by a filibuster.
I’m including a White House video of President Biden’s remarks below, as well as the President’s formal statement made on Tuesday about what’s next, if and when SCOTUS overturns Roe. As I’ve said, everyone predicting that this will lead to a wholesale rollback of human rights and civil rights is correct. Griswold is next, Windsor is next, Obergefell is next. Then Loving, and on and on. But… as a Biden supporter, as a longtime Democrat, I need President Biden and every other Democrat to stop focusing on what OTHER rights will eventually be rolled back. Because overturning Roe is in and of itself the most catastrophic thing to happen to American women in my lifetime, in every woman’s lifetime. We’re being told “wow, gay rights are next” like thousands of women aren’t going to die before that.
President Biden speaks on the Supreme Court’s draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. pic.twitter.com/EJyBmTdf0G
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 3, 2022
Statement by President Biden on the reported Supreme Court decision draft. pic.twitter.com/YMA6wv6Ya7
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 3, 2022
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
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- Washington, D.C. – United States President Joe Biden departs after speaking during an event honoring the Presidential Rank Award winners from 37 federal agencies in a virtual ceremony in the South Court Auditorium in Washington, DC. Pictured: Joe Biden BACKGRID USA 2 MAY 2022 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Washington, D.C. – United States President Joe Biden departs after speaking during an event honoring the Presidential Rank Award winners from 37 federal agencies in a virtual ceremony in the South Court Auditorium in Washington, DC. Pictured: Joe Biden BACKGRID USA 2 MAY 2022 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
I think examining it holistically is best. There are a surprising number of people who point to the lack of actual abortion access in many states and suggest overturning Roe won’t do much. Of course that’s incorrect, but people need to be awakened to the realities of what this decision will mean. We can focus on the implications of this massive ruling being overturned and also what it will mean for others. Because people don’t live in vacuums – there will be LGBTQ people including women who need abortions (and other types of health care – what will “permissions” required from doctors look like in these cases?) and other types of overlap.
I agree, I think it important that we talk about all of the implications of this ruling. There are SO MANY other areas of law that Americans think are settled, thinking they have rights and protections, and this ruling is going to upend them all. Some people won’t realize how extreme this decision is until they realize how incredibly broad the scope is.
And sadly….some people who can’t get pregnant will not care about the Roe ruling, but they may care about other issues. We need everyone to realize that they will be impacted by these changes, regardless if they can get pregnant or not. I wish our fellow citizens actually cared about the health of women and girls, but many do not.
Agreed. If that’s what some people need to hear in order to take an issue seriously. It really does get depressing having to always emphasize how people who may not be women or girls can be hurt by regressive behaviors and agendas in order to legitimize the issue though. It’s depressing to almost always have to connect female suffering to potential male suffering in some way. It sometimes seems like you’ll get further saying human instead of women.
” It’s depressing to almost always have to connect female suffering to potential male suffering in some way.”
Yes!! This, so much.
I agree that we need to be focused on Roe right now but I don’t know if it is truly a bad thing to take the long view and have people see how much of a lynchpin case Roe was and is.
I will take whatever support we can get in whatever way we can get it. If it means broadening the view fine. It infuriates me that yes this “woman” problem isnt enough for some people but we need to rally together and fight this.
If I don’t own my body, I am a slave. If the government owns my body, I am a slave to the government.
92% of women who get an abortion do so within the first 13 weeks.
60% of women already have 1+ children.
The right fights to take services like food, housing, and healthcare away from real, live children, while fighting to protect fetal tissue, forcing women and young girls to remain pregnant against their will.
There are 200,000 ectopic pregnancies a year in the US. All of them will become fatal.
The Handmaid’s Tale doomsday clock just ticked over to 11:59.
Never forget and Never forgive all those white suburban women who “just couldn’t” bring themselves to vote for Hilary Clinton for whatever ever stupid, specious f@cling deluded “reasons” they used to excuse their deplorable actions. They are the reason we are here now and Yes, there is a special place in Hell for all of them! Looking at the Jill Stieners and the Bernie Lovers too – thanks Asshats for the wreckage you have all wrought for reproductive health rights.
This is where I am, too. Of course Republicans suck. It’s been no mystery, ever. But to the Republican women voting for their own subjugation, year after year, and third party voters too stupid to find their butt with both hands? I salute your total and complete lack of intellect.
As someone who had an ectopic pregnancy, that is completely incorrect. By definition, the fertilized egg is not in the uterus so you can’t even perform a D&C to remove it. The consequences of this ruling are bad enough without making up new ones.
Republican extremists have indeed spoken about criminalizing treatment of ectopic pregnancy (with methotrexate etc). These words were spoken by an Oklahoma state legislator last week: A child who is, in fact, living out part of his or her early life as an ectopic pregnancy is still a unique human being with its own DNA. I don’t understand why we allow those children to be murdered.—Okla Sen. Warren Hamilton
Ohio is currently debating abortion legislation. Representative Beth Liston, who is also a physician, said the rules in the bill have very complicated exceptions for things like ectopic pregnancy, for example, requiring that the fetus must have access to a NICU. With time being of the essence in these kinds of emergencies, if a woman doesn’t live close to a NICU, it could put the woman’s life in danger while they take the time to meet the standards of the allowed exceptions that will allow her to receive care for the ectopic pregnancy.
Edited to add that it doesn’t necessarily have to be a traditional “abortion” procedure like D&C to violate some of these laws. In Ohio, the definition is the purposeful termination of a human pregnancy with an intention other than to produce a live fetus or to remove a dead fetus or embryo.
Absolutely.
This is only the beginning of whatever dystopian plan they have to take us back to the dark ages and make everyone else a second class citizen not worth of equal rights or protection.
But, as you said, we need to fight to prevent this one from being overturned. (Or work to have it enshrined in law.) Because if there’s no fight on this one, just empowers them for the next one.
Women have been shouting that this was part of their end game for years. It’s depressing and disgusting that in my mother’s lifetime she saw the legalization of abortion and the overturn of it.
Look – it’s a long overdue wake up call – but this is it.
(Also agree that even as a white woman – though I don’t live in suburbia – I’m disgusted by the short-sightedness and inability to care for others not in their privileged situation of suburban white women.)
Tech bros are selling software that could help law enforcement track who is going to locations like Planned Parenthood for the future when abortion and heck even contraception, miscarriage, and ectopic pregnancy are criminalized. See stories reported in outlets such as Vice and Jezebel yesterday.
Expand the court. Kill the filibuster. Codify Roe. Come on Dems! Do what you actually say and have been promising!!!!!!! These out of touch judges should not be allowed to do this ! I should have my right to privacy!
I think Biden should expand the court. It’s caused a plethora of judges that are imposing their beliefs onto women! Those that lied are certainly unfit to serve so we need to pack it with people that won’t impose their beliefs onto American women!!!