| Advertisement |
July 1 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden on Friday predicted some states will try to prevent women from crossing state lines to seek an abortion but pledged to protect women's rights to travel to seek such services. He said the federal government will also protect women seeking the abortion pill from another state if their home state bans the medication.
Advertisement
"People are going to be shocked when the first state ... tries to arrest a woman for crossing a state line to get health services," Biden said during a meeting with Democratic governors in the South Court Auditorium of the White House.
"I don't think people believe that's going to happen. But it's going to happen and it's going to telegraph to the whole country that this is a gigantic deal that goes beyond, I mean, it affects all your basic rights."
The U.S. Supreme Court voted June 24 to overturn the 1973 landmark ruling of Roe vs. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide. Biden, who called it "a terrible, extreme decision" Friday, reiterated his pledge to protect women's ability to travel across state lines to obtain abortion services.
"As I said last week: This is not over," Biden said Friday. "Last week, I announced two specific actions. First, that if extremist governors try to block a woman from traveling from her state that prohibits her from seeking medical help she needs, to a state that provides care, the federal government will act to protect her bedrock right through the attorney general's office," he said.
Biden also repeated his call for Americans to vote more Democrats into Congress in the upcoming midterm elections. He's seeking to have federal abortion rights codified into law, but in order to do so, Democratic senators would have to get past the filibuster, which would block the legislation from passing with a simple majority.
"The choice is clear: We either elect federal senators and representatives who will codify Roe or Republicans ... who will try to ban abortions nationwide," he said.
