The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the 1972 Roe v Wade and 1992 Planned Parenthood v Casey decisions which had protected a woman’s right to seek an abortion prompted immediate outrage from prominent Democrats who assailed the ruling as an assault on women’s rights, while top Republicans praised the court for returning the abortion issue to state legislatures, many of which have already outlawed the procedure.
“Today, the Republican-controlled Supreme Court has achieved the GOP’s dark and extreme goal of ripping away women’s right to make their own reproductive health decisions. Because of Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, the Republican Party and their supermajority on the Supreme Court, American women today have less freedom than their mothers,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement Friday.
Ms Pelosi also called the decision “outrageous and heart-wrenching” and warned that “radical Republicans” would now “[charge] ahead with their crusade to criminalize health freedom” starting with a national abortion ban currently supported by a majority of GOP members, and noted that “GOP extremists” have also threatened to ban contraception, in-vitro fertilisation and other medical procedures.
“A woman’s fundamental health decisions are her own to make, in consultation with her doctor and her loved ones – not to be dictated by far-right politicians. While Republicans seek to punish and control women, Democrats will keep fighting ferociously to enshrine Roe v. Wade into law,” she added.
The Senate’s top Democrat, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, said the ruling made today “one of the darkest days our country has ever seen” with “millions upon millions of American women … having their rights taken from them by five unelected Justices on the extremist MAGA court”.
“These justices, appointed by Republicans and presiding without any accountability, have stolen a fundamental right to have an abortion away from American women in this country. These justices were intentionally appointed by Republicans to overturn Roe v. Wade and every Republican Senator knew this would happen if they voted to confirm these radical justices,” said Mr Schumer, who added that the “MAGA Republicans” who voted to confirm Justices Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito, and Amy Coney Barrett were “all complicit in today’s decision and all of its consequences for women and families in this country”.
