President Joe Biden says abortion is a “fundamental” right and is calling on Congress to pass legislation to codify that right into federal law, following a report that the Supreme Court has already voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“I believe that a woman’s right to choose is fundamental, Roe has been the law of the land for almost fifty years, and basic fairness and the stability of our law demand that it not be overturned,” President Biden said in a statement released by the White House Tuesday morning.
He says, “if the Court does overturn Roe, it will fall on our nation’s elected officials at all levels of government to protect a woman’s right to choose. And it will fall on voters to elect pro-choice officials this November. At the federal level, we will need more pro-choice Senators and a pro-choice majority in the House to adopt legislation that codifies Roe, which I will work to pass and sign into law.”
That statement is consistent with one he made before he was elected President, promising to codify the right to abortion into law.
President Biden noted his administration has “argued strongly before the Court in defense of Roe v. Wade.”
We said that Roe is based on “a long line of precedent recognizing ‘the Fourteenth Amendment’s concept of personal liberty’… against government interference with intensely personal decisions.”