Biden vows fight after Supreme Court decision on Texas abortion law
New York, 2 September 2021 (tca/dpa/MIA) — President Joe Biden vowed to fight back against the Supreme Court’s ruling on a Texas law that effectively bans abortion, saying the measure all but kills women’s right to choose and “unleashes unconstitutional chaos.”
In a sharply worded rebuke, Biden accused the top court of “insult[ing] the rule of law” for refusing to even hear arguments on the controversial restrictive anti-abortion law.
“Rather than use its supreme authority to ensure justice could be fairly sought, the highest court of our land will allow millions of women in Texas in need of critical reproductive care to suffer,” Biden said.
Biden vowed to launch an “all of government” response to protect what he called women’s constitutional rights to reproductive freedom. But it’s not clear what practical steps he can take in the face of the court’s decision.
Besides criticizing the bill's strict ban on abortion, Biden blasted the bill’s unusual mechanism. The law enacts a 10,000-dollar bounty designed to encourage abortion foes to sue clinics and anyone else suspected of helping a woman terminate a pregnancy.
“It not only empowers complete strangers to inject themselves into the most private of decisions made by a woman, it actually incentivizes them to do so with the prospect of 10,000 dollars,” Biden said.
The Supreme Court just before midnight released its 5-4 ruling refusing to put a hold on the Texas law, which went into effect hours earlier.
Even though the majority asserted it was not ruling on the constitutionality of the Texas law, liberal justices said the move effectively reverses the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nearly 50 years ago.
“A majority of the court have chosen to bury their heads in the sand,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a stinging dissent.