President Joe Biden predicted on Friday that some US states would try to arrest women for having abortions after the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to procedures nationwide.
13 Republican-led states have banned or severely restricted the procedure under so-called “trigger laws” after the court last week overturned a 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. demand of women in those states abortion May have to travel to states where it is legal.
Calling a virtual meeting on abortion rights with Democratic state governors on Friday, Biden said he thinks “people will be shocked when the first state …
He continued: “And I don’t think people believe it’s going to happen. But it’s going to happen, and it’s going to telegraph the whole country that this is a huge deal that goes even further; I mean , it affects all your fundamental rights”.
Biden said the federal government would act to protect women who need to cross state borders to have an abortion and ensure their access to the drug in states where it is restricted.
The governor of New Mexico, Michelle Lujan Grisham, told the meeting that her state “will not cooperate” on any attempt to track down women who have had abortions to punish them. “We will not extradite,” she said.
Abortion rights groups have filed legislation in several states to preserve women’s ability to terminate pregnancies.
Judges in Florida, Louisiana, Texas and Utah have since issued rulings preventing those states from enacting new restrictive abortion laws, while Ohio’s top court on Friday blocked the Republican-led state from enforcing abortion restrictions. refused.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul told the group that “only a few states” would have to look after women’s health across the country.
“There is such tension there,” Hochul said. “It’s a matter of life and death for American women,” she said.
Biden also told the group that there were not enough votes in the Senate to overturn a supermajority rule known as filibuster to codify Roe v. Wade’s protections into law.
He proposed that the senator remove the filibuster but the suggestion was rejected by aides of key Democratic lawmakers.
“(The) filibuster shouldn’t stand in the way of us being able to (codify) Rowe,” Biden said.
(Reporting by Rami Job, Jeff Mason and Susan Heavy Editing by Alistair Bell)