WASHINGTON, May 3 (Reuters) – US President Joe Biden on Tuesday called on voters to defend abortion rights by backing candidates who support them in the November election after an expired Supreme Court bill showed it could soon overturn the decision. its since 1973 to legalize abortion.
Biden said his administration would respond after the Supreme Court ruled, but stopped calling for more radical changes – including urging the Senate to change its rules to allow a simple majority to pass a law guaranteeing access to abortion.
The Senate is divided 50-50 between Biden’s Republicans and Democrats, and Vice President Kamala Harris can break any tie.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
I’m registering
A draft Supreme Court ruling that expired late Monday showed a majority of judges are ready to overturn Rowe v. Wade’s 1973 ruling, which protects abortion rights. The court on Tuesday confirmed the authenticity of the leaked document. Read more
Governments are putting more pressure on Biden, who is already struggling with the US response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and efforts to curb high inflation at home.
Earlier, Biden turned down calls to expand the Supreme Court to add more left-wing judges.
Former President Donald Trump, who has promised to appoint judges to overturn abortion rights, managed to appoint three lawyers during his four-year term, giving the court a conservative majority of 6-3.
Biden on Tuesday pressured voters to send more candidates to Congress who support women’s rights to choose to have an abortion.
“If the Court still overturns Rowe, it will fall on the elected officials of our nation at all levels of government to protect women’s right to vote. And it will be up to the voters to choose the officials who support the election this November, “Biden said in a carefully worded written statement with top aides.
“At the federal level, we will need more senators to support the election and a majority in the House of Representatives to pass legislation codifying Roe, which I will work for to pass and sign a law.”
US President Joe Biden speaks at a memorial service for former Vice President Walter Mondale in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, May 1, 2022. REUTERS / Kevin Lamarque
Read more
Control of the House of Representatives, in which Democrats have a weak majority, and the Senate are set for election in November, and Republicans are expected to win a majority in one or both houses.
Harris, the first woman to be vice president, said Roe’s opponents are seeking to take away women’s rights to make decisions about their own bodies.
“The rights of all Americans are at stake,” she said. “If the right to privacy is weakened, everyone can face a future in which the government can potentially interfere in the personal decisions you make for your life. This is the time to fight for women and your country with everything. that we have. “
Biden said the decision could go beyond the woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy, mentioning same-sex marriage and other freedoms.
“This would mean that any other decision on the concept of confidentiality has been called into question,” Biden told reporters at the Andrews Joint Base outside Washington before traveling to Alabama. “This is a fundamental change in American jurisprudence, if it is maintained.
Roe’s ruling recognizes that the right to privacy under the US Constitution protects a woman’s ability to terminate a pregnancy.
Abortion has been a hotspot between Democrats and Republicans in the United States for decades. Democrats tend to support abortion rights, and Republicans tend to oppose them.
Biden said that because more restrictive Republican-backed abortion laws had been passed in various states and the impending Supreme Court ruling, he had ordered White House officials to prepare options for the administration’s response.
The Mississippi Supreme Court’s ruling in an abortion case, expected by the end of June, could give voters on both sides of the issue to run in the by-elections. Read more
“Rowe has been extremely wrong from the start,” conservative Judge Samuel Alito wrote in a February 10 draft opinion.
Based on Alito’s opinion, the court will find that Roe v. Wade’s decision to allow prenatal abortions to be viable outside the womb – between 24 and 28 weeks of gestation – was wrongly decided because the US Constitution does not mentions specifically abortion rights.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
I’m registering
Additional reports by Catherine Jackson, Susan Heavy and Timothy Ahman; Edited by Howard Goller, Will Dunham and Rosalba O’Brien
Our standards: Thomson Reuters’ principles of trust.
Add Comment