President Joe Biden released a forceful statement Thursday blasting the Supreme Court for an 'assault on women's rights' over its refusal to block a restrictive Texas abortion law, and said the ruling 'insults the rule of law and the rights of all Americans.'
'The highest Court of our land will allow millions of women in Texas in need of critical reproductive care to suffer while courts sift through procedural complexities,' Biden wrote.
He also directed the White House Counsel's office to mount a response to the court's decision, guided by the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Justice.
The law, known as the 'Texas Heartbeat Act', bans abortion once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which is normally after six weeks and before many women even know they are pregnant.
It makes no exceptions for rape or incest and allows Texans to report people, including Uber drivers, who help or take women to get abortions. The only exemption is if there is a danger to the woman's health.
Biden vowed to directly challenge the Supreme Court, by ordering the agencies to apparently circumvent the ruling and 'ensure that women in Texas have access to safe and legal abortions as protected by Roe.'
He asked the White House to look at 'what legal tools we have to insulate women and providers from the impact of Texas' bizarre scheme of outsourced enforcement to private parties.'
Attorney General Merrick Garland reaffirmed the DOJ would take the matter up, stating: 'The Justice Department is deeply concerned about Texas SB8. We are evaluating all options to protect the constitutional rights of women, including access to an abortion.'
Progressive 'squad' members Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Cori Bush are leading calls to pack the Supreme Court after it declined to block the Texas abortion law in a 5-4 decision.
Ocasio-Cortez and Bush are leading renewed calls to expand the Supreme Court to tip its current conservative majority in the wake of the 5-4 ruling
Abortion rights supporters gather to protest Texas SB 8 in front of Edinburg City Hall on Wednesday
Ocasio-Cortez lashed out against the Supreme Court early Thursday morning over its refusal to block the law called on Democrats to 'abolish the filibuster and expand the court.'
In a Twitter post published just after midnight, the progressive lawmaker accused Republicans of overturning landmark case Roe v. Wade.
'Republicans promised to overturn Roe v Wade, and they have,' Ocasio-Cortez wrote. 'Democrats can either abolish the filibuster and expand the court, or do nothing as millions of peoples’ bodies, rights, and lives are sacrificed for far-right minority rule.'
She added that it 'shouldn't be a difficult decision' for her colleagues.
Hillary Clinton invoked Roe v. Wade on Thursday and accused the Supreme Court of 'gutting' the 1973 case.
'Last night, the Supreme Court officially overturned five decades of settled law and permitted Texas' unconstitutional abortion ban to stand,' she wrote.
'Yes: They gutted Roe v. Wade without hearing arguments, in a one-paragraph, unsigned 5-4 opinion issued in the middle of the night.'
Bush said the ruling embodied 'far-right extremism' on Wednesday.
'In the span of one week the Supreme Court forced 11 million households to face eviction and effectively overturned Roe v. Wade in the middle of the night.
'This is what far-right extremism looks like. We need to expand the court.'
The two squad members expressed outrage at the Supreme Court's ruling on Twitter
The Supreme Court formally refused Wednesday to block a Texas law banning almost all abortions after six weeks, less than a day after the nation's most restrictive reproductive rights legislation took effect in the southern state.
The decision spurred outrage among pro-choice advocates and renewed long-running progressive calls to expand the Supreme Court to allow President Biden to tip the majority with more liberal justices.
Court-packing was a divisive topic in the 2020 election and used as a cudgel against Biden by former President Trump and other Republicans.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi also panned the Supreme Court as 'cowardly' in a Thursday statement and vowed Congress would take up the Women’s Health Protection Act which would 'enshrine into law reproductive health care for all women across America.'
Other Democratic lawmakers are agreeing with Pelosi and appealing to Congress to pass the legislation to protect abortion access on the federal level.
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