By Karen Stokes
On Friday, June 24th the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on a 5-4 decision (Photo/Associated Press)
Last Friday, the Supreme Court voted to strike down Roe v. Wade, on a 5-4 vote, a nearly 50-year-old ruling that protected a pregnant woman’s right to choose to have an abortion.
The decision clears the way for over a dozen of states to swiftly ban the procedure and throws the country into uncharted political, legal, social and medical territory.
“The fact that the Supreme Court took away a constitutional right, the result is that extreme state laws are already coming into play. They are what are called “trigger laws” and will continue to be passed by the state legislature and those laws will jeopardize the health of millions of women,” said Jen Klein, co-chair of the White House Gender Policy Council. “Some of them even do not have exceptions for rape or incest.”
The majority of the American public are not supportive of the action the Supreme Court took on Friday overturning Roe v. Wade.
Jen Klein, co-chair of the White House Gender Policy Council (Photo/Institute for Women’s Policy Research)
According to a May 2022 Gallup poll,
58% of Americans Do Not Want Roe v. Wade Overturned,
35% wanted Roe v. Wade overturned,
58% of Republicans,
34% of independents,
15% of Democrats wanted it overturned.
On Friday, President Biden spoke immediately after the decision along with the Attorney General Merrick Garland. Both the President and the Attorney General made it clear that the President will defend a woman’s right to travel from her home state to a state that allows abortion.
Klein also said that the Attorney General issued a strong statement that if any elected official tries to interfere with women exercising this basic right, the administration will fight with everything in its power to prevent that from happening.
Biden also said that his administration will protect access to medications that are approved by the FDA. Contraceptives and Mifepristone which the FDA approved 20 years ago to safely end an early pregnancy.
“Mifepristone is also commonly used to treat miscarriages so the President directed the Secretary of Health and Human Services to ensure that critical medicines like these will be available to the fullest extent possible,” said Klein.
“The action that the Supreme Court has taken was extreme and Senator McConnell and others have made it clear that they would make abortion illegal in all 50 states if Republicans get a majority in Congress,” Klein cautioned. “It’s really important for people to understand that it is in their power to use their voice, to have people voted into Congress who represent their views.”