Once Donald Trump was able to put three more conservative justices on the Supreme Court, it was only a matter of time before Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision, which had governed reproductive rights in this country for nearly half-a-century, would be overturned.
The Court’s decision in 2022 took away a woman’s constitutional right to choose what happens in her own body and gave that right to state legislatures. The aftermath to Roe being overturned was predictable.
In 21 states, from Florida to Arizona, we have witnessed unprecedented attacks on women’s freedom to make their own health decisions as far-right, Republican-controlled legislatures have imposed extreme and dangerous abortion bans that puts a woman’s health in jeopardy.
These laws also undermine a woman’s right to privacy and often threaten her doctors and nurses with prosecution and jail time for doing their jobs. Some states have even sought to prosecute anyone who helps a woman travel to another state to get an abortion. No woman should ever be unable to access the healthcare that she needs.
But the anti-abortion movement is continuing to push the Supreme Court this year to further restrict reproductive options and health care access. One case would severely limit access to mifepristone, the most commonly used abortion pill in the country. Another would allow states to block hospitals from providing emergency abortion care.
These lawsuits are only part of the broader, relentless MAGA Republican effort to ban abortion nationwide. Trump and his allies even have a strategy to ban medication abortion access in all 50 states through executive action -- without the help of the courts or Congress.
Trump believes he can campaign as a “moderate” on abortion. After spending weeks bragging that he alone was responsible for overturning Roe, he recently claimed that he now supports letting states, rather than the federal government, set abortion policy. It’s a lie. And we can be sure about one thing: from now until November, he will continue to lie about his anti-abortion record every chance he gets.
The truth is Trump will sign a national abortion ban if Congress sends it to him, and he will use the administrative power of the Department of Justice, Food and Drug Administration and Department of Health and Human Services to further limit other reproductive rights, including IVF and birth control.
Trump and his allies are an existential threat to our rights and freedoms. The contrast for this election could not be clearer: Donald Trump and the Republicans will take away your rights, and Joe Biden and the Democrats will codify your rights.
President Biden and Vice President Harris are firmly committed to protecting a woman’s right to choose what happens in her own body. They are fighting to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade in federal law to protect reproductive health care access in every state, and more, including:
We must reelect President Joe Biden and secure Democratic majorities in Congress to restore the rights of Roe v. Wade once again.
