House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday lashed out at the Supreme Court for the justices’ decision to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade, calling the high court “Trumpian” and vowing that Democrats will prevail in the midterms because conservatives ended abortion rights.
“Because of Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and the Republican Party — their super majority of Supreme Court — American women today have less freedom than their mothers with Roe and their attempt to destroy it. Radical Republicans are charging ahead with their crusade to criminalize health freedom,” she said. “In the Congress, be aware of this, the Republicans are plotting a nationwide abortion ban. They cannot be allowed to have a majority in the Congress to do that. But that’s their goal.”
The Supreme Court on Friday overturned Wade, which gave women a national right to an abortion up until viability or about 28 weeks.
The 6-3 ruling sends the abortion issue back to state legislatures.
“The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision,” Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote for the court’s majority.
With Roe overturned, 13 states with “trigger bans” are set to place restrictions on abortion procedures within 30 days.
SEE ALSO: Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, national abortion right
Mrs. Pelosi, California Democrat, promised that Democrats would not “let this pass.”
“A woman’s right to choose, reproductive freedom is on the ballot in November. We cannot allow them to take charge so that they can institute their goal which is to criminalize reproductive freedom to criminalize,” she said. “Right now they’re saying in states that they can arrest doctors and all the rest.”
Mrs. Pelosi, who is Catholic and pro-choice, was angered that the Supreme Court’s abortion decision came on the heels of Thursday’s ruling that struck down New York’s strict rules for permitting concealed carry of handguns, which also was a blow to liberals.
“The Supreme Court has ended a constitutional right. This is a 50 years old proclaimed constitutional right. What happens today was historic in many respects, historic in that it had not granted recognized a constitutional right and then reversed it,” she said. “This is a first and again just before an imposed constitutional right to allow for concealed weapons.”
Mrs. Pelosi called the high court’s decision “dangerous” and said her only consolation was that the Senate on Thursday passed the first new major gun laws in decades.
“I was really in an exalted state about what happened in the United States Senate yesterday — [a] counterpoint to the dangerous decision of this Trumpian Supreme Court.”
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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