WASHINGTON, June 26 (Reuters) – Leading women Democrats called on President Joe Biden and Congress on Sunday to defend abortion rights across the country after the US Supreme Court overturned Rowe against Wade in a ruling that heightened political tensions between the federal government. and the states.
Two Democratic Progressives, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, called on Biden to use federal land as a safe haven for abortions in states that ban or severely restrict the practice after the Supreme Court on Friday overturned a landmark 1973 ruling that recognized the constitutional right of women to abortion. Read more
“Forcing women to get pregnant against their will will kill them,” Ocasio-Cortez told NBC’s Meet the Press program.
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Georgia’s Democratic Gov. Stacy Abrams has called on Democrats in Congress to codify Rowe against Wade in law by repealing the U.S. Senate filibuster rule that allowed Republicans to block such efforts last month. Read more
“We know that the right to vote must not be divided between states, and that the sinister practice of taking constitutional rights and allowing each state to decide the quality of your citizenship is wrong,” Abrams told CNN.
“I would reject the idea that this is the will of the people,” she said in a separate interview with Fox News Sunday.
Democrats also called on Biden to protect women’s access to a pill used for medical abortion against the state’s efforts to ban its availability, a major new legal battle the administration has indicated it will take. Read more
South Dakota Republican Gov. Christy Noem said her state, one of 13 conservative states with current abortion bans that are now in place or will soon be in effect, will stick to its ban on abortion pills in the mail. .
“The Supreme Court said the constitution does not give women the right to have an abortion. That means in each state, they will decide how to deal with these situations, “Noem told CBS’s Face the Nation. “I love it in this country that we have a very limited federal government,” she said.
Abortion rights activists hold a candlelight vigil before the United States Supreme Court in Washington, DC, USA, June 26, 2022. REUTERS / Evelyn Hockstein
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Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat who filed a lawsuit to suspend the 1931 strict state abortion ban after Roe’s fall against Wade, called on the Biden administration to take all possible steps to preserve reproductive rights.
“I urge every pro-election leader to use every tool in his toolbox. So I hope and believe that the Biden administration will do that, “Whitmer told CBS.
Earlier in June, some 25 Senate Democrats called on Biden to issue an executive order to preserve reproductive rights at the federal level, including making abortion pills more accessible, enabling agencies to provide financial assistance to women seeking abortions in other states and explore the use of federal lands to provide abortion services in restrictive states.
BATTLE FOR KURNI
About 71 percent of Americans – including a majority of Democrats and Republicans – say abortion decisions should be left to the woman and her doctor, not regulated by the government, according to a Reuters / Ipsos study. Read more
On Friday, Biden and leading Democrats in Congress tried to use the Supreme Court ruling as a unifying cry for the November midterm elections, which will determine the balance of power in the Senate and House of Representatives on the eve of the 2024 presidential election.
Democrats hope that the anger of women voters will allow them to expand their razor-sharp majority in the Senate so that they can reform the 60-vote margin needed for most legislation.
But Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham predicted that the Supreme Court’s ruling would not affect Senate rules or the November election, saying voters were more concerned about inflation, crime and immigration.
“This was won through the ballot box by conservatives, and we will not allow liberals to intimidate the rule of law system to take it away from us,” Graham told Fox News Sunday.
“The Senate will sit here. The Senate will not change. The requirement of 60 votes for the legislation will be in force,” he said.
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Report by David Morgan, David Lauder and Catherine Jackson; Edited by Mary Millikon and Daniel Wallis
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