REACTIONS: The Supreme Court’s Dobbs Decision Has Been Published
Editor’s Note: It’s a big day signifying big changes – the early rumblings of a new political era – now that the Supreme Court has officially overturned Roe v. Wade with the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Whole Women’s Health.
Here’s a sampling of the national reaction.
Heritage Action Executive Director Jessica Anderson…
Today’s official Dobbs decision finally allows the elected representatives of the American people to end decades of injustice and save millions of babies with beating hearts from the ravages of the abortion industry. Every life is precious, and this is a major milestone in our decades-long fight to protect life.
This victory for life is but the first step in our fight for the unborn. State and federal lawmakers will once again be free to advance protections for life. American public opinion has advanced with science – mothers have been able to see ultrasounds and hear their baby’s heartbeat at six weeks. Recognizing that, over the past 50 years Americans have steadily become more passionate about protecting life, and the twenty-six states with protections for life already in place reflect the desire of the American people to defend unborn babies. Now, other states must follow the lead of governors in South Dakota, South Carolina, Florida and Nebraska, in calling for special sessions and new legislative initiatives to protect life, and our federal representatives should join the states in enacting new protections for life.
Despite the pro-abortion Left’s best attempts to undermine America’s system of justice, the Supreme Court refused to give into their bullying, harassment, intimidation, and even assassination attempts. As the Court is now met with threats from Democrats in Washington to pack the Court and nuke the filibuster, or attacks from Speaker Pelosi calling the Court ‘dangerous,’ justices continue to carry out their duties with the same standard of justice and impartiality.
The Democrats aren’t as happy, as you might imagine. A “Joint Statement” From DNC, DSCC, DCCC, DGA, DAGA, DLCC and DMA…
In response to the United States Supreme Court today overturning Roe v. Wade, DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, DSCC Chair Gary Peters, DCCC Chair Sean Patrick Maloney, DGA Chair Roy Cooper, DAGA Co-Chairs Aaron Ford and Kathy Jennings, DLCC Chair Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and Democratic Mayors Association President Levar M. Stoney issued the following joint statement:
“Democrats believe women in America have the right to make their own health care decisions, and that politicians should never get in the way of these private decisions. Today’s Supreme Court ruling is the culmination of a coordinated Republican effort to attack this fundamental freedom – but Democrats will fight back with every tool we can, and voters of every political persuasion will hold the GOP accountable in 2022.
“Make no mistake: The Republican Party will not stop at overturning Roe. The 2022 election will now determine whether new, cruel, and punishing restrictions will be put in place on women and families. With Republicans in power, states could make abortion illegal without exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother, and women and doctors could be charged with a crime if they have or perform an abortion.
“The stakes of November’s elections could not be higher – and voters will make their voices heard by standing with Democrats up and down the ballot.”
Yeah, maybe not.
We got a kick out of this one. “Exactly what business is this of yours, again?”
National Center for Lesbian Rights Condemns Supreme Court Reversal of Roe v. Wade
Decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Reveals High Court Has Abandoned Individual Rights
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, in a 6-3 ruling, the United States Supreme Court held that the Constitution does not protect the fundamental right to abortion, overruling the landmark decisions Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.“It is impossible to overstate how dangerous this is. The U.S. Supreme Court has done a complete about-face and held that individuals do not have the right to decide for themselves whether or not to continue a pregnancy,” said Imani Rupert-Gordon, NCLR Executive Director. “The majority opinion states that liberty, supposedly guaranteed to us all by the Constitution, is defined by an era when women of any race could not vote, hold property, or legally exist apart from their husbands, and when the citizenship rights of Black women and other women of color were nonexistent.
There is hardly a more egregious assault on individual liberty than forcing someone to be pregnant against their will. For the first time, the Supreme Court has reversed a long-standing precedent to take away – not expand – liberty rights under the Constitution.”
“As a result of today’s decision, some people will die because they can no longer access abortion care,” said Julianna Gonen, NCLR Federal Policy Director. “Others will have their lives ruined by not being able to make their own decisions about their health and their futures. And as Justice Thomas makes clear in his concurrence, which openly calls for the reversal of the fundamental rights to contraception, sexual intimacy, and marriage, the Court’s disregard for precedent poses a clear and present danger to freedoms that are of utmost importance not only to LGBTQ people but to every person in this country.”
Earlier in June, NCLR released an open letter signed by 91 LGBTQI+ organizations calling on policymakers at all levels and in all branches of government to do everything in their power to protect access to abortion care. And last September, NCLR, along with 22 other LGBTQ organizations, submitted an amicus brief in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization outlining the harms that would befall sexual minority women if the Court were to overturn Roe, and how such a decision would violate principles of gender equality.
Here’s one from Avow Texas, a pro-abortion group…
In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court has ruled to overturn Roe. The Texas Legislature already enacted a trigger law to prohibit abortion by making it a crime. These criminal penalties in Texas will be effective 30 days after today’s Supreme Court opinion is released.
Avow Executive Director Aimee Arrambide issued the following statement:
“We have been ringing the alarm that what happens in Texas, doesn’t stay in Texas and that the public health crisis Texans have been facing for nearly 10 months will be the reality in half the country. Our opponents are not going to stop until abortion is completely inaccessible in this country.
It will be Black, Indigenous, people of color, disabled folks, trans people, minors, and low-income communities who are most impacted by today’s decision. These are communities that are already criminalized, surveilled, and punished and it’s going to get much worse as states move to criminalize pregnant people needing to access care in this new landscape. We don’t need to talk about hypotheticals, we see this already happening here in Texas with Lizelle Herrera who was jailed for self-managing her abortion, and in Poland, where abortion is banned and the country is moving to surveil people’s pregnancies.
Abortion advocates in red states are resilient, we’re committed to fighting back. Most importantly, we need solidarity from other movements – if past decisions have shown us anything it is that abortion is a testing ground for the kind of rogue and cruel legislation they intend to pass on other issues. If 50 years of precedent means nothing for abortion rights, it means they’re coming for voting, racial, housing, and environmental rights.
We’ll finish with American Spectator publisher Melissa Mackenzie, who puts a bow on this…
I never thought that Roe would be overturned. Didn’t dare to dream that it was possible. I certainly didn’t think a donor to Democrats like Donald Trump would be the man to make it happen. Yet, here we are.
Not only does Donald Trump deserve credit, and, of course, the courage of the six conservative justices who will no doubt be hunted for the rest of their lives, but the individual activists who persisted, and will continue to persist, for 50 years to get this terrible ruling undone. The people who pray outside abortion clinics deserve credit. The activists who exposed Planned Parenthood’s heinous actions like selling baby parts deserve credit. The women and men who donate and work at pregnancy assistance centers deserve credit. The marchers deserve credit. Patiently, these people have chipped away at a legal ruling that kills babies and souls.
What a day to rejoice! What a day to remember!
And to those who sought a perfect vessel for perfect policy, remember, politics is about wielding power and creating policy to wield that power. Sitting on a perch waiting for the perfect politician to achieve policies is a fool’s errand. All politicians are flawed, some more than others, and yet, a flawed politician can achieve good outcomes with courage.
How many babies would have died with Hillary Clinton as president of the United States? How many lives lost? How much more solidly would the evil of abortion have been rooted into the fabric of America had Democrats had the power and money to make it so federally?
