US Supreme Court strikes down abortion rights: Sad day for the country, says Biden; slap on women’s face, says Pelosi

On the other side of the divide stood Governor of Mississippi Tate Reeves, Former Vice-President Mike Pence and many other Republicans who welcomed the verdict.

By: Express Web Desk

New Delhi | Updated: June 24, 2022 10:33 PM IST

5 min read

Many patients in Florida get medication abortions, which involve taking two different drugs, 24 to 48 hours apart, and are authorized for the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. But the center provides surgical abortions up until almost 22 weeks of pregnancy, too — at least until the new law takes effect. (File Photo: AP/ Representational)

Millions of women in the US will lose the legal right to abortion, after the Supreme Court overturned a 50-year-old ruling that legalised it nationwide. The court struck down the landmark Roe v Wade decision, weeks after an unprecedented leaked document suggested it favoured doing so.

US President Joe Biden on Friday called the supreme court’s decision “a sad day for the court and for the country.” “The court has done what it has never done done before, which is expressly take away a constitutional right that is so fundamental to so many Americans,” the president said in a speech from the White House.

President Biden called for protests to remain peaceful. The president also said that the abortion rights are ‘on the ballot’ in November midterm elections.

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Within an hour of the decision, the section of street outside the courthouse was nearly full with demonstrators both celebrating and protesting the ruling. Besides the gathering outside the court, the country also seems to be divided when it comes to opinions regarding the ruling.

Reacting to the ruling, Former US President Barack Obama condemned the decision and said that the court “not only reversed nearly 50 years of precedent but attacked the essential freedoms of millions of Americans”. Obama added that although this verdict was anticipated, it still does not make it less devastating.

In a tweet, Obama wrote: “Today, the Supreme Court not only reversed nearly 50 years of precedent, it relegated the most intensely personal decision someone can make to the whims of politicians and ideologues—attacking the essential freedoms of millions of Americans.”

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, too, denounced the decision, calling it a hypocrisy that will cause endless harm. “The hypocrisy is raging, but the harm is endless. What this means to women is such an insult. It’s a slap in face to women about using their own judgment to make their own decisions about their reproductive freedom,” she said Friday.

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However, on the other side of the divide, Governor of Mississippi Tate Reeves quickly welcomed the ruling, saying his state had “led the nation to overcome one of the greatest injustices in the history of our country”. “This decision will directly result in more hearts beating, more strollers pushed, more report cards given, more little league games played, and more live well lived. It is a joyous day!” he wrote.

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Former Vice-President Mike Pence, a long-standing critic of Roe v Wade, said: “The judgement has given the American people a new beginning. Having been given this second chance for life, we must not rest and must not relent until the sanctity of life is restored to the centre of American law in every state in the land.”

Following the Supreme Court decision, Missouri has become the first state in the country to effectively end abortion. Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt called the verdict a “historic day” along with remembering over 60 million innocent lives lost due to abortions. “I have always fought to protect the unborn. Because of our action today, millions of lives will be protected moving forward,” Schmitt wrote on Twitter.
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Numerous Republican-led states have also passed various abortion restrictions in defiance of the Roe precedent in the recent years. Before the Roe decision, many states banned abortion, leaving women who wanted to terminate a pregnancy with few options.

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