Get ready for a battle of the veeps over abortion rights.
Former Vice President Mike Pence trashed current No. 2 Kamala Harris for her impassioned attack on the Supreme Court for its draft opinion overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.
Turning Harris’ own words against her, Pence retorted with a “how dare you” anti-abortion clarion call of his own.
“I say with the lives of 62 million unborn boys, and girls ended in abortion since 1973, generations of mothers enduring heartbreaking and loss that can last a lifetime: Madame Vice President, how dare you?” Pence said.
A longtime pro-life stalwart, Pence threw down the gantlet at Harris in a Thursday night speech to the Carolina Pregnancy Center in Spartanburg, South Carolina, an anti-abortion group.
He made no secret that he celebrates the apparent decision of the conservative Supreme Court majority to the rollback of abortion rights after nearly 50 years of Roe being considered the law of the land.
“We have a historic opportunity to restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law,” Pence told reporters. “I welcome that, and I hope, and I pray that the Supreme Court of the United States draft opinion will hold and become a part of the law of the land.”
Harris, who succeeded Pence as vice president when President Joe Biden beat former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election, angrily denounced the leaked Supreme decision in a speech to the pro-choice political action group Emily’s List.
“Those Republican leaders who are trying to weaponize the use of the law against women, well we say: ‘How dare they?’” Harris said. “How dare they tell a woman what she can do and cannot do with her own body?”
The draft decision was leaked by an unknown person on Monday night. It is not final, but the Supreme Court has verified its authenticity.
Chief Justice John Roberts denounced the leak as “absolutely appalling” because it ruined a longtime commitment to secrecy while creating opinions.
Democrats and advocates for civil, women’s and LGBTQ rights say the real outrage is the decision itself, which guts the right to privacy that has been the cornerstone of gay marriage equality, civil rights, and other decisions in the nearly 50 years since Roe was decided.
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