President Biden has always been a pro-choice Catholic. As in, he follows the Church’s teachings personally but politically he believes that every person has the right to make their own reproductive decisions. He has a record going back decades of supporting choice and pro-choice judges. Just keep that in mind whenever people are like “well Biden is Catholic, he doesn’t even like abortion.” He knows his faith doesn’t give him the right to impose his religious views on anyone. The Democratic Party is full of pro-choice Catholics in this way. Ted Kennedy was the same (and I’ve always believed Biden modeled his own philosophy on Kennedy’s). Anyway, President Biden’s reaction to the leaked Hobbs decision was to tell Americans that overturning Roe will lead to the rollback of even more American rights.
President Joe Biden said Tuesday that a “whole range of rights” beyond abortion are in question if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade.
“It’s really quite a radical decision,” Biden said in his first public comments about a leaked draft Supreme Court opinion indicating the high court may be on the cusp of upending the landmark 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion. “It’s a fundamental shift in American jurisprudence.”
Biden said the same arguments included in the draft opinion could also be used to strike down the right of gays and lesbians to marry as well as constitutional protections for birth control.
“Every other decision based on the notion of privacy is thrown into question,” Biden told reporters before flying to Alabama to tour a defense production facility. He said Roe v. Wade decided that the moment of conception is an open question, adding that any decision that makes a judgment on that question “goes way overboard.”
Earlier Biden released a statement calling on Congress to codify abortion rights and urged voters to elect lawmakers who would support those rights. He declined to say whether he would support changing Senate rules so legislation codifying the right to abortion could not be blocked by a filibuster.
[From USA Today]
I’m including a White House video of President Biden’s remarks below, as well as the President’s formal statement made on Tuesday about what’s next, if and when SCOTUS overturns Roe. As I’ve said, everyone predicting that this will lead to a wholesale rollback of human rights and civil rights is correct. Griswold is next, Windsor is next, Obergefell is next. Then Loving, and on and on. But… as a Biden supporter, as a longtime Democrat, I need President Biden and every other Democrat to stop focusing on what OTHER rights will eventually be rolled back. Because overturning Roe is in and of itself the most catastrophic thing to happen to American women in my lifetime, in every woman’s lifetime. We’re being told “wow, gay rights are next” like thousands of women aren’t going to die before that.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 3, 2022
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 3, 2022
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
Source: Read Full Article