After the Supreme Court on Monday ruled in favor of abortion providers in the case June Medical Services v. Russo, the Trump campaign said that the decision highlighted the necessity for reelecting the president in November.
The case, which was decided in a 5-4 vote with Chief Justice John Roberts joining the liberal wing of the court, was long expected to be a referendum on President Trump’s strategy of appointing conservative judges in the hopes of receiving decisions favorable to conservatives. And, although the decision in June Medical Services was a loss for the administration, Trump’s two Supreme Court appointees, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, voted in the conservative minority — a fact people involved in the Trump campaign pointed to as a win.
Frank Pavone, the controversial priest serving as co-chair of Pro-Life Voices for Trump, said that the decision underscored how important it is that social conservatives vote in November.
“We need a solid pro-life majority on the Supreme Court to uphold the rights of women and the unborn,” he said. “President Trump’s two appointees voted the right way. We need him to continue appointing the justices for four more years.”
Pavone, who also serves in a leadership role for Catholics for Trump, in the past has castigated Trump’s opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, for professing his Catholicism publicly while still supporting abortion. The Biden campaign on Monday came out in support of the court’s decision, reiterating a campaign promise that Biden would as president “codify” the landmark decision on abortion, Roe v. Wade, into federal law.
Biden’s campaign also promised that it would crack down on states, such as Louisiana, that enacted the abortion restrictions in question in June Medical for trying to limit abortion access.
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“My Justice Department will do everything in its power to stop the rash of state laws that so blatantly violate a woman’s protected, constitutional right to choose,” Biden said in a statement.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion advocacy group the Susan B. Anthony List, who also serves as a co-chair on Pro-Life Voices for Trump, warned that the possibility would be a crippling blow to the anti-abortion movement.
“Joe Biden, who has abandoned babies in the womb he once voted to protect, vows to stack the Court with abortion extremists,” Dannenfelser said in a statement, noting that, although the anti-abortion movement lost in court on Monday, the fact that Kavanaugh and Gorsuch voted in the minority should give social conservatives faith in Trump for keeping “his promise to appoint constitutionalist Supreme Court justices.”
Dannenfelser noted on Twitter that by joining the liberals, Roberts inadvertently gave the anti-abortion movement fuel to push harder on the issue in the presidential and senate elections.
“Who names the next justice wins,” Dannenfelser said, in reference to the long-debated abortion question.
The Trump campaign said on Monday that the case laid bare the need to reelect Trump, noting that if there were more conservatives on the court, decisions such as this one are less likely.
“This case underscores the importance of re-electing President Trump, who has a record of appointing conservative judges, rather than Joe Biden, who will appoint radical, activist judges who will legislate from the courts,” the campaign said.
Trump drew criticism from many social conservatives in late June for the 6-3 decision in the case Bostock v. Clayton County, a landmark transgender rights case in which Roberts and Gorsuch joined the liberal wing of the court.
