Biden Urges Congress To Undo High Court's 'Tragic Error'

Washington - President Joe Biden on Friday called the U.S. Supreme Court's decision overturning abortion rights a "tragic error" and called on Congress to codify abortion protections into law. 

Biden's demand for action makes clear that Congress will be one of the next battlegrounds for the decadeslong legal fight, and abortion will be a major issue in the fall's midterm elections. 

The president and Capitol Hill Democrats rebuked what they called an assault on women's reproductive rights and privacy while Republicans celebrated victory after a half-century trying to secure a Supreme Court majority willing to overturn the 1973 landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade .

Friday's ruling, which came in a case concerning a Mississippi anti-abortion law, is "the realization of an extreme ideology and a tragic error by the Supreme Court," Biden said at a White House news conference, adding that it has put the health and lives of women at risk. Biden said the decision "shows how extreme" and out of step the court's conservative majority is with most Americans' views on abortion rights.

"They made the United States an outlier among the developed nations. This decision must not be the final word," Biden said. "My administration will use all of its appropriate lawful powers, but Congress must act. With your vote, you can act. You can have the final word. This is not over."

And in a stinging rebuke, the president called out by name Justice Clarence Thomas, who suggested in a concurring opinion that the Supreme Court should revisit and overrule its decisions legalizing same-sex marriage and the right to obtain contraception. Biden said the court is on an "extreme and dangerous path."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., echoed similar sentiments in a statement, saying the majority has given Republicans the "dark and extreme goal of ripping away women's right to make their own reproductive health decisions."

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the decision was handed down by "five unelected justices on the extremist MAGA court."

The landmark opinion was authored by Justice Samuel Alito Jr. and joined by Justices Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Chief Justice John Roberts voted to uphold the Mississippi abortion law but wrote separately he would not overrule Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

The Casey ruling, which largely affirmed the right to terminate a pregnancy, reaffirmed Roe.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced Friday that his panel will hold a hearing on July 12 "to explore the grim reality of a post-Roe America."

"The court's decision to erase the right to access an abortion will not only lead to the denial of critical health care services, but also criminal consequences for women and health care providers in states eager to embrace draconian restrictions. I will keep fighting to enshrine into law a woman's right to make her own reproductive choices," he added.

Democrats have already pushed to codify abortion protections in the wake of the leaked draft opinion suggesting the court was prepared to overturn Roe. The House has passed such legislation, but a Senate vote in May failed 49-51, mostly along party lines.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., was the only senator to cross over in opposing the bill. Manchin said at the time that he wanted to write the precedent into law even though he did not support the bill that was getting a vote on the Senate floor.

In response to Friday's decision, Manchin said he was "deeply disappointed," and he reiterated that he would support legislation to codify Roe's abortion protections.

"I trusted Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh when they testified under oath that they also believed Roe v. Wade was settled legal precedent, and I am alarmed they chose to reject the stability the ruling has provided for two generations of Americans," said Manchin, who broke with his party and voted to confirm both justices.

Still, Democrats are highly unlikely to be able to get any legislation past a filibuster in the 50-50 Senate, even if several Republican senators who support abortion protections were to cross the aisle.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who voted for justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch but did not vote for Justice Barrett, blasted Friday's decision and suggested she was misled by the justices she had supported. She said the ruling was "inconsistent" with what justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch told her privately in meetings and said publicly in their confirmation hearings.

"The Supreme Court has abandoned a 50-year precedent at a time that the country is desperate for stability," Collins said. "This ill-considered action will further divide the country at a moment when, more than ever in modern times, we need the court to show both consistency and restraint. Throwing out a precedent overnight that the country has relied upon for half a century is not conservative. It is a sudden and radical jolt to the country that will lead to political chaos, anger, and a further loss of confidence in our government."

Collins touted the Reproductive Choice Act, legislation she introduced with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, to codify the abortion protections. That legislation is more narrow than the bill Democrats voted on this year. 

Collins also said she is working with Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., on compromise legislation that would safeguard other precedents, including 2016's Whole Women's Health v. Hellerstedt, which struck down a Texas law intended to shut down abortion clinics with what the court at the time said were extraneous, unnecessary provisions, and 1965's Griswold v. Connecticut, which established the right to privacy and upheld individuals' access to contraceptives.

"Our legislation would enshrine important abortion protections into law without undercutting statutes that have been in place for decades and without eliminating basic conscience protections that are relied upon by health care providers who have religious objections to performing abortions," Collins said.

Yet beyond Collins, most Republican lawmakers cheered the decision.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who led the effort to confirm the three Donald Trump-appointed justices who voted to overturn Roe, called the decision "courageous and correct." He said the court was rectifying a major legal error, comparing it to the Brown v. Board of Education decision that overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, which had endorsed racial segregation as constitutional.

"The justices applied the Constitution," McConnell said. "They carefully weighed the complex factors regarding precedent. The court overturned mistaken rulings that even liberals have long admitted were incoherent, restoring the separation of powers. I commend the court for its impartiality in the face of attempted intimidation."

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., a Judiciary Committee member, called the Roe precedent a "tragic mistake."

"The Supreme Court has finally corrected this mistake, and I highly commend the millions of Americans who toiled for years to achieve this great victory for unborn life and self-government," Cotton said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a past chair of the Judiciary Committee, said the decision represented a "constitutional reset" that returned the issue to the states.

"Finally, all these decades of toiling in the vineyards fighting for conservative judges has paid off," Graham said. "I am glad to have done my part in this cause. I also appreciate President Trump's leadership in nominating conservative justices."

--Editing by Orlando Lorenzo.

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