Biden says 'Roe is on the ballot' in November after SCOTUS decision to overturn landmark case
Delivering remarks after the Supreme Court released its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the nearly 50-year-old ruling that legalized abortion nationwide, President Biden urged Americans on Friday to elect more members of Congress in November who will codify the right to an abortion in federal law.
Video transcript
JOE BIDEN: It was three justices named by one president, Donald Trump, who were the core of today's decision to upend the scales of Justice and eliminate a fundamental right for women in this country. Make no mistake, this decision is a culmination of a deliberate effort over decades to upset the balance of our law. It's a realization of an extreme ideology and a tragic error by the Supreme Court, in my view. The court has done what it has never done before, expressly take away a constitutional right that is so fundamental to so many Americans that had already been recognized.
The court's decision to do so will real and immediate consequences. State laws banning abortion are automatically taking effect today, jeopardizing the health of millions of women, some without exceptions, so extreme that women could be punished for protecting their health, so extreme that women and girls are forced to bear their rapist's child, for the child a consequence-- it-- it just stuns me. So extreme that doctors will be criminalized for fulfilling their duty to care. Imagine having a young woman have to carry the child of incest, as a consequence of incest, no option.
Too often the case, the poor women are going to be hit the hardest. It's cruel. In fact, the court laid out state laws criminalizing abortion that go back to the 1800s as rationale. The court literally taking America back 150 years.
It's a sad day for the country, in my view. But it doesn't mean the fight's over. Let me be very clear and unambiguous, the only way we can secure a woman's right to choose in the balance that existed is for Congress to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade as federal law. No executive action from the president can do that. And if Congress, as it appears, lacks the votes to do that now, voters need to make their voices heard.
This fall, we must elect more senators and representatives who will codify a woman's right to choose into federal law once again, elect more state leaders to protect this right at the local level. We need to restore the protections of Roe as law of the land. We need to elect officials who will do that. This fall, Roe is on the ballot. Personal freedoms are on the ballot. The right to privacy, liberty, equality-- they're all on the ballot.
