Denver Newsroom, Jun 24, 2022 / 13:55 pm (CNA).
In a Friday press conference, U.S. President Joe Biden called on Congress to codify abortion access into federal law, following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade that morning. The court’s decision returned the question of abortion policy to the states, which Biden labeled a “tragic error.”
He also said he had that day directed the Department of Health and Human Services to make abortion pills more widely available, and that he would do “everything in my power” to protect women traveling to obtain abortions.
“It’s a sad day for the court and for the country,” Biden, the nation’s second Catholic president, said June 24.
Calling abortion an “intensely personal decision,” Biden went on to lament that the decision had taken away women’s “right to choose” and the “power to control their own destiny.” He claimed that with Roe gone, the “life and health” of women in the United States is now “at risk.”
Biden has repeatedly expressed support for Roe v. Wade — which legalized abortion nationwide in 1973 — despite the teaching of his Catholic faith that abortion is a “grave evil.”
“I believe Roe v. Wade was the correct decision,” Biden stated, claiming that Roe represented a “broad national consensus” relating to the “fundamental right to privacy” that “most Americans of faith…found acceptable.”
This is despite evidence suggesting that more than 60% of all Americans disagreed with the central holding of Roe v. Wade, according to a January Knights of Columbus/Marist Poll survey.
“This decision is the culmination of a deliberate effort over decades to upset the balance of our law,” Biden continued, claiming that “the court has done what it has never done before, expressly take away a constitutional right that is so fundamental to so many Americans and had already been recognized. The court’s decision to do so will have real and immediate consequences.”
“It’s a realization of an extreme ideology and a tragic error by the Supreme Court, in my view.”
The only way to “secure a women’s right to choose,” Biden said, is for Congress to restore Roe as federal law, adding that “executive action can’t do that.” He urged the election of pro-choice legislators in the fall midterm elections.
Biden stated that he intends to provide aid to women living in pro-life states who want to travel to pro-abortion states. “If any state or local official, high or low, tries to interfere with a woman’s exercising her basic right to travel, I will do everything in my power to fight that deeply un-American attack,” Biden said.
The president also said he had directed the Department of Health and Human Services to “take steps” to ensure that mifepristone, the first drug in medical abortion regimen, is “available to the fullest extent possible.” Abortion supporters have pointed to medical abortions — which have been linked to numerous health risks — as a kind of workaround or backup plan for women to access abortion as states restrict abortion. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s most recent Abortion Surveillance report, for the year 2019, “early medical abortions” made up 42.3% of abortions that year.
Biden requested that people upset by the decision remain peaceful in their response. This comes after numerous recent incidents of vandalism of pro-life pregnancy centers across the country, which the White House condemned via a spokesperson June 15.
“I call on everyone no matter how deeply they care about this decision to keep all protests peaceful. Peaceful. Peaceful. Peaceful. No intimidation. Violence is never acceptable. Threats and intimidation are not speech. We must stand against violence in any form regardless of your rationale,” Biden said Friday.
Biden concluded by claiming that the decision to overturn Roe had “made the United States an outlier among developed nations in the world,” despite the fact that the U.S. was previously one of only a handful of countries — including China and North Korea — that permitted elective abortions after 20 weeks’ gestation. Fourty-seven out of 50 European countries, independent states, and regions analyzed in 2014 either do not allow elective abortion or limit elective abortion to 15 weeks or earlier.
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Top comment of the week
The concept of personal responsibilty in the area of sexual activity as an alternative to abortion never seems to penetrate Biden’s dull mind. Woman have a number of options here besides abortion. Chastity first and foremost, birth control, adoption, birth and retention of the baby. I would think that a woman with any maternal sensibilities at ALL would find abortion a completely unacceptable choice. Its very disappointing that the Pope had chosen to say NOTHING to Biden and Pelosi directly about their rabid support of infanticide during their recent meetings, especially as they make political hay with their supposed “catholic” credentials.As Democratic party hysteria in this area grows to acceptance of violent extremes including attacks on churches and pro-life centers, lets see if the Pope has a reality check, or remains in denial.
Will have to legislate. Alito’s masterful opinion leaves no doors open for a constitutional basis for abortion and nothing to ‘codify’ on a federal level.
Yes. The opinion was brilliantly and skillfully argued. The justices established that neither American law nor English common law provided a legal basis for abortion. Upholding the Constitution- you’d think we would all agree on that. Progressives see it as an obstacle to their agenda, much to the harm of innocent lives.
Mr. Olson:
I have a favor to ask – In the future when speaking of President Biden and referring to him as a Catholic, would you please do one or both of the following:
1) Do NOT capitalize the word Catholic.
or
2) Put it like this – ‘Catholic’.
Either one would be acceptable, both would be preferable.
Thank you
Good call. Otherwise, we run the risk of inadvertently participating in his charade of lies.
It’s become increasingly imperative that the Church must now [after due warning and consultation] regarding this president, who falsely claims Catholicism and continues to pursue beyond justifiable reason, a policy to expand the death of innocent infants [as well as a host of abominations including expansion of LGBT presumed rights that override religious rights – to be excommunicated.
Laity, clerics require evidence of what the Church upholds as sacred, and permitting this reprobate to continue to viciously attack Christian doctrine, destroy the innocent gives a false impression of what we believe. It cannot stand. I pray the bishops realize this and now must act faith and courage.
Furthermore, if one really cares, out of charity, for an apostate’s repentance, and salvation, those with the authority I should think have an obligation to take those steps that Archbishop Cordileone took with Nancy Pelosi. Whether a positive response is elicited, it may in future with the knowledge of what’s at stake for their salvation made clear. It’s more an act of compassion for the sinner in danger of condemnation.
You are absolutely right Father. Sad to say this would surely be a scandal of public witness for ironic reasons. Francis would finally become public regarding concrete abortion political effects, but not on the side of life. In a given mood, he will denounce abortion, even with passion. In another mood he will prioritize his ego over the babies and go back to posturing as Francis the Merciful as he did with sacrilegious treatment of the Eucharist, his medicine for everyone heresy, including architects of mass murder. Just imagine how testy he will get with a public excommunication of one of his favorite political trophy figures. The global stage would receive the exact opposite image of Catholic truth. But it should be done anyway. Maybe even Francis would do the right thing for a change.
We won our battle of Midway. Now it’s time for a public statement for the good of humanity and the souls of the invincibly arrogant.
So is Cardinal Wilton Gregory going to deny Biden communion now, given that he has not only rejected established Church teaching on life issues, but is now passed further into heresy?
Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live,
Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Psalm 139:13-16 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.