<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1656092602564,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000016c-7763-d473-a96f-77eb53420000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1656092602564,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000016c-7763-d473-a96f-77eb53420000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_56082225", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1039680"} }); ","_id":"00000181-96b4-df44-ad8b-d7fe29150000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedPresident Joe Biden made an appeal to voters Friday in his first remarks after the Supreme Court overturned the nearly five-decade precedent in Roe v. Wade that guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion nationwide.
“This fall, Roe is on the ballot. Personal freedoms are on the ballot,” Biden said in remarks from the White House Cross Hall.
SUPREME COURT OVERTURNS ROE V. WADE, PAVING WAY FOR STATE ABORTION BANS
Biden called on Congress to codify Roe into law, an admission of his limits as president.
“The only way we can secure a woman’s right to choose is for Congress to restore Roe v. Wade as federal law,” he said. “No executive action from the president can do that.”
Biden promised to protect the ability to travel to seek an abortion, calling this “a bedrock right,” and to do “everything in [his] power to fight” such restrictions.
The decision, he said, is “a sad day for the court and the country.”
“It just stuns me,” Biden said.
Democrats have issued a torrent of statements condemning the ruling Friday and are expected to lean heavily on the decision as they seek to motivate voters ahead of the November elections.
Biden did not respond to questions about the ruling and the future of the Supreme Court, which some Democrats have called for abolishing or expanding.
In his remarks, Biden said the ruling may have broader implications for the public.
The president said overturning the 1973 decision would have repercussions for other privacy rulings, arguing that the law serves as a basis “for so many more rights that we’ve come to take for granted.”
He said that “this decision must not be the final word.”
The justices voted 6-3 to strike down Roe, returning power to the states to decide when a woman can terminate a pregnancy. States cannot prohibit women from seeking abortions in other states, however.
A majority of justices joined the opinion authored by Justice Samuel Alito in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, ruling that a law banning abortion after 15 weeks of gestation in the state of Mississippi can hold. Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh as well as Chief Justice John Roberts voted in favor.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Biden, who has faced pressure to act unilaterally after a draft decision to overturn Roe leaked from the court in May, has long noted a tension between his Catholic faith and the politics of his party.
The president said last month that it would be a “radical decision” if the Supreme Court followed through but drew rebuke for using the phrase “abort a child” to describe the action.
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