Biden on Roe v Wade Decision: “A Sad Day for Our Country”

US President Joe Biden responded to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade on Friday, stating that it is a “sad day for our country.”

The US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, the historic 1973 case in which the court decided that abortion was a constitutional right in the US, earlier on Friday.

By a 6-3 decision, the court overturned the ruling, leaving decisions regarding access to abortion up to individual states.

The 1992 case Planned Parenthood v Casey, which affirmed the right to abortion that was decided in the Roe v Wade case, was also overturned on Friday.

Since 1973, women in the US have had the right a receive an abortion during the first two trimesters of pregnancy, before the fetus could survive outside of the womb.

Now, at least half of the US states are expected to enact laws restricting abortion either completely or severely.

Biden reacts to Roe v Wade decision

At the White House, President Biden expressed his regret at the ruling and stated that he would do what he could to protect abortion access for women across the country. He also urged Americans to vote for pro-choice candidates.

“I believe Roe v. Wade was the correct decision as a matter of constitutional law and application of the fundamental right to privacy and liberty and matters of family and personal autonomy,” he stated.

“It’s a sad day for our country but it doesn’t mean the fight is over,” he said, urging Americans to elect more pro-choice lawmakers in the House and Senate in November’s midterm elections.

“We need to restore the protections of Roe as law of the land. We need to elect officials who will do that,” he continued.

Anticipating a wave of protests on both sides of the issue across the country, Biden urged protestors to avoid violence on Friday.

“I call on everyone no matter how deeply they care about this decision to keep all protests peaceful, peaceful, peaceful, peaceful, no intimidation,” he stated. “Violence is never acceptable.”

Supreme Court decision

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion in favor of overruling the decision, and five other conservative Justices on the Court joined the opinion. The Court’s three liberal justices opposed the ruling.

“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled…The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely — the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,” Alito wrote.

In response, the three dissenting justices wrote:

“The majority has overruled Roe and Casey for one and only one reason: because it has always despised them, and now it has the votes to discard them. The majority thereby substitutes a rule by judges for the rule of law…The majority would allow States to ban abortion from conception onward because it does not think forced childbirth at all implicates a woman’s rights to equality and freedom.”

“Today’s Court, that is, does not think there is anything of constitutional significance attached to a woman’s control of her body and the path of her life…A State can force her to bring a pregnancy to term, even at the steepest personal and familial costs,” it was written.