Former President Donald Trump said Friday that the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision establishing a national right to abortion because he was able to install three nominees on the bench during his term in office.
Mr. Trump called the ruling “the biggest win for life in a generation” and said it was “only made possible because I delivered everything as promised.”
“I did not cave to the Radical Left Democrats, their partners in the Fake News Media, or the RINOs who are likewise the true, but silent, enemy of the people,” the former GOP president said in a statement issued by his political action committee.
Mr. Trump nominated three of the court members in the majority in Friday’s ruling: Justices Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
They joined Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., a George W. Bush appointee, and Justice Clarence Thomas, a George H.W. Bush appointee, in striking down Roe. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., another George W. Bush pick, sided with the others in upholding Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, but said he would not have overruled all of Roe at this point.
Analysts have credited Mr. Trump’s decision to run hard on Supreme Court picks with helping him win election in 2016.
At the time, the seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia was open, and Republicans, who controlled the Senate, said the winner of the election should pick the next occupant.
Mr. Trump broke with precedent by releasing a list of potential court picks, heavy on conservative stars, which helped him garner support of conservative voters who had been wary of the unconventional political newcomer.
Justice Gorsuch ended up filling the Scalia seat in 2017, with Justice Kavanaugh surviving a rough confirmation process to take the seat of retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy in 2018 and Justice Barrett taking the seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2020.
The dissenting justices in Friday’s ruling said but for those changes, Roe would likely still be intact.
“The Court reverses course today for one reason and one reason only: because the composition of this Court has changed,” the dissenters wrote.
The Democratic National Committee also credited Mr. Trump with the ruling — and excoriated him for his victory lap.
“Donald Trump has dedicated his career to undermining the fundamental rights of the people of this country and already made clear that he wants to go even further by criminalizing abortion,” said DNC spokesperson Adonna Biel.
Mr. Trump said he also should get credit for “other decisions.”
He didn’t mention which ones, but the court on Thursday issued a major opinion ruling that the Second Amendment trumped state laws that restricted the issuance of concealed-carry firearms permits only to those who showed a special need to carry.
The gun and abortion decisions shared a common approach: The majority in each case said the Constitution needed to be interpreted based on the meaning it had for those who wrote it — in the case of the Second Amendment, at the government’s founding, and in the case of abortion, at the ratification of the 14th Amendment.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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