Joe Biden Said 'Abortion' Today. Good Joe Biden!

He doesn't usually do that!

Joe Biden said the word "abortion" today. He doesn't often say the word "abortion." Like a lot of older white Democrats his statements on the subject are often "Bing bong, right to choose, words words words, woman and her doctor, precedent and settled law!"

But in today's statementfrom President Biden, in the aftermath of Samuel Alito's childish "If I Could Give The World A Gift" speech on abortion, he says it. Just the once, of course.

We do not know whether this draft is genuine, or whether it reflects the final decision of the Court.

With that critical caveat, I want to be clear on three points about the cases before the Supreme Court.

First, my administration 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.” 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.

Second, shortly after the enactment of Texas law SB 8 and other laws restricting women’s reproductive rights, I directed my Gender Policy Council and White House Counsel’s Office to prepare options for an Administration response to the continued attack onabortionand reproductive rights, under a variety of possible outcomes in the cases pending before the Supreme Court. We will be ready when any ruling is issued.

Third, 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.

Well, that's better than it could have been!

Today, we are indeed hearing noises from Congress about immediately codifying Roe into law, not that any of that is going anywhere with Joe Manchin and his fucking houseboat having veto power over God himself.

But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced this morning that it's time for a fight on the floor of the Senate, to make every senator say which side they are on. (Since we congratulated Joe Biden for it, we must however note that the joint statement from Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not manage to sound out the word "abortion." Do better, please.)

"Every American is going to see on which side every senator stands" — Sen. Chuck Schumer says the chamber will vote on a bill to codify Roe v. Wade, the ruling that protects abortion rights and is now under threat at the Supreme Court.pic.twitter.com/90hG2gFxbZ

— CBS News (@CBS News) 1651589215 

 Schumer said, “A vote on this legislation is not an abstract exercise. This is as urgent and real as it gets. We will vote to protect a woman’s right to choose, and every American is going to see which side every senator stands.” So that's good. They tried in February, when the House passed such a bill, and it didn't work. But it might be important for Americans to really see with their eyes open right now who is with them and who's against them. And to be clear, Americans are not confused about what side they are on regarding abortion.

“More than anything we want to make sure every senator is on the record in terms of their position on Roe and on the decision of the court,” said Senate Judiciary chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).

Bernie Sanders, Kirsten Gillibrand and Elizabeth Warren immediately called for getting rid of the filibuster to protect abortion rights. Bernie came out strong and fast:

Congress must pass legislation that codifies Roe v. Wade as the law of the land in this country NOW. And if there aren’t 60 votes in the Senate to do it, and there are not, we must end the filibuster to pass it with 50 votes.

— Bernie Sanders (@Bernie Sanders) 1651541936 

 Ed Markey says pack the fucking court:

A stolen, illegitimate, and far-right Supreme Court majority appears set to destroy the right to abortion, an essential right which protects the health, safety, and freedom of millions of Americans. There is no other recourse. We must expand the court.

— Ed Markey (@Ed Markey) 1651542256 

Meanwhile, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, the two ostensibly pro-choice Republicans, are each just going through some things today as they grapple with the possibility that this court full of rightwing partisan hack ideologues might act like the rightwing partisan hack ideologues they've been their entire careers.

 Tell us about your various shocks and awes, Senator Collins:

Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), one of two Republican abortion rights supporters in the Senate, expressed surprise that either Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh or Justice Neil M. Gorsuch would join an opinion overturning Roe v. Wade .

“If this leaked draft opinion is the final decision and this reporting is accurate, it would be completely inconsistent with what Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh said in their hearings and in our meetings in my office,” Collins said in a statement.

Oh dear, well now we all are going have concerns, now aren't we!

 Murkowski says if this draft opinion ends up being the ruling, "it rocks my confidence in the Court." Just now her confidence is rocked. Nothing before this could have prepared any of us for this moment. Certainly not this. Or this. Or this. 

Or, like, the fact that Donald Trump's three justices were grown in petri dishes in Dead Phyllis Schlafly's home dungeon for the fucking specific purpose of murdering abortion rights and bodily autonomy for all people who aren't straight white conservative Christian men.

Over there in the House of Representatives, some Democrats want to vote to codify Roe again. Jim McGovern, chair of the House Rules Committee, said he'd like to do it just to show how "disgusting" the Supreme Court is. Additionally:

“For all the talk in the past that Roe vs. Wade was on the chopping block, a lot of people said, ‘Oh, that’s never going to happen. The Supreme Court will never overturn that.’ But it’s real. It’s happening,” McGovern said.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is loudly pointing out that if you read the very text of Alito's opinion, he makes quite clear that he and his vile illegitimate buddies are coming for pretty much all individual rights Christian supremacist extremists don't like, despite how he had a perfunctory line about how he was only writing about abortion:

As we’ve warned, SCOTUS isn’t just coming for abortion - they’re coming for the right to privacy Roe rests on, which includes gay marriage + civil rights. Manchin is blocking Congress codifying Roe. House has seemingly forgotten about Clarence Thomas. These 2 points must changehttps: //twitter.com/mjs_dc/status/1521296185977417732 …

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) 1651543221 

So that's all correct.

The Supreme Court has now confirmed that the leaked opinion from Alito is real, but not the Court's final opinion, not that they're saying anything specific about what is the Court's final opinion. Chief Justice John Roberts is very mad and he is ordering an investigation and goodness gracious we just don't give a fuck about the Supreme Court's whining about violations of its sacred fucking decorum right now. Know what's a violation of some sacred fucking decorum? If an illegitimate Supreme Court full of lazy partisan hacks that's already been hard at work destroying voting rights eliminates bodily autonomy for women and people with uteruses, and then uses that to come for birth control, LGBT marriage equality, sex and whatever else you can think of.

That said, if it's true that this is not the Court's final opinion, and we were the ones doing the investigating, we know which justice's clerks and water boys we'd be hitting up right about now.

In summary and in conclusion, and to end on a complete non sequitur , if you want to see one of America's worst people crying stupid moron tears about fetuses when the news came out last night, you must be looking for Marjorie Taylor Greene:  

The Supreme Court is preparing to overturn Roe—the most significant and glorious news of our lifetime. Join me in praying to God for the right outcome. Life begins at conception. Let’s protect it.pic.twitter.com/SNdb6WUBXO

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (@Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene) 1651540515 

[ White House / Politico / Washington Post ]

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