President Biden on Tuesday said former President Trump is “most responsible” for the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, blaming his predecessor for “stripping away” abortion rights and vowing to veto any potential national abortion ban.
Biden made the comments at a “Reproductive Freedom” campaign rally in Manassas, Virginia, on Tuesday afternoon.
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“I believe Roe v. Wade got it right,” Biden said. “A New Supreme Court made an extreme decision overturning Roe v. Wade with their Dobbs decision.”
Biden said the high court “did what it had never done before.”
“It ripped away a fundamental constitutional right that was in place for nearly 50 years and that was so important to so many Americans for so long,” Biden said, stressing that the “health and lives of women in this nation would be at risk.”
Protesters gather in the wake of the decision overturning Roe v. Wade outside the U.S. Supreme Court on June 25, 2022 in Washington, DC. The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health overturned the landmark 50-year-old Roe v. Wade case and erased a federal right to an abortion. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
Biden said women are “being turned away from our emergency rooms, forced to travel hundreds of miles to get basic health care, forced to go to court to plead to help to protect themselves, and the ability to often have children in the future.”
“The cruelty is astounding and it’s a direct affront to a woman’s dignity to be told by extreme politicians and judges to wait to get sicker and sicker before anything can happen, even to the point where, as you heard your life had been determined to be in danger, or the idea that a woman should have to carry a fetus after she’d been raped or the victim of incest,” Biden said. “It’s outrageous.”
“Or the idea a woman receives competent medical advice that the fetus she’s carrying won’t live and will impact on her ability to have children in the future and she still can’t get medical care,” he continued. “I think it’s unconscionable that anyone think that anyone think that this is where America is going in 2024.”
“Let there be no mistake: the person most responsible for taking away this freedom in America is Donald Trump,” he said. “Trump says he’s proud that he overturned Roe v. Wade.”
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The Supreme Court ruling in 2022 came in the court’s opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The ruling returns the issue of abortion back to the states after nearly 50 years.
Biden pointed to the 21 states that have enacted abortion bans, and blamed Trump.
Biden has criticized Trump for creating a conservative majority on the high court. Trump, during his administration, appointed conservative Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
“The reason women are being forced to travel out of state—women are being forced to travel across state lines for health care is Donald Trump,” he said. “When you are threatened with prosecution, it’s because of Donald Trump.”
“And the reason their fundamental right has been stripped away is Donald Trump, and because of Donald Trump, doctors are fleeing their home states, setting up practices in other states because they’re afraid they’ll be put in prison if they exercise their responsibilities in states like Texas,” Biden said. “Doctors Can get a life sentence for providing the care they were trying to provide. It’s Outrageous.”
Biden claimed that Trump and “MAGA Republicans,” which he said includes House Speaker Mike Johnson “are hell bent on going even further.”
Pro-life demonstrators outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., US, on Friday, June 24, 2022. (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“To date, MAGA republicans in Congress propose three additional national abortion bans to criminalize health care in every state,” Biden said. “Let me tell you what they are: First is a zero-week ban with absolutely no exceptions. The second one introduced is a six-week ban with a penalty for violating — it is jail. And the third is a 15-week ban and the penalty is a five-year jail sentence.”
Biden warned that “even if you live in a state where extremist Republicans are not in charge of the state government, your right to choose your right to privacy is still risk.”
“But as long as I have power of the presidency, know, this — if Congress are to pass a national abortion ban, I will veto it. I will veto it,” Biden said. Look, MAGA Republicans are trying to limit all women in America from getting a safe and effective medication.”
Biden added: “I don’t think this court and the MAGA Republicans have any clue about the power of women in America. I don’t think that they have any clue but they’re about to find out.”
Biden went on to say the 2024 election is “going to be the most important election we’ve had since 1864.”
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“I mean, the reasons are clear. Democracy is on the ballot. Freedom is on the ballot — like the freedom to choose, the freedom to vote, the freedom to love who you want, the freedom to go to work, go to school, go to your house and worship without fear of being gunned down by a weapon of war,” Biden said.
“So my question to you is simple. Are you ready? Are you ready to defend democracy? Are you ready to protect our freedoms? And are you ready to win this election? Let’s get this done,” Biden said. “Talk to your families and friends. Organize your community. Register to vote. Get people to the polls. And let’s remember who we are. We are the United States of America. And there’s nothing, nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together.”