OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
President Joe Biden said Friday his Justice Department is looking at ways to thwart enforcement of Texas’ bill banning abortions in the state after a fetal heartbeat is detected.
“The most pernicious thing about the Texas law is it creates a sort of vigilante system where people get rewards to go out to—anyway,” Biden said regarding a provision of the law that allows private individuals to sue those who help facilitate an abortion.
“I was told there are possibilities within the existing law to have the Justice Department look and see whether there are things that can be done that can limit the independent action of individuals in enforcing state law. I don’t know enough to give you an answer yet, I have asked that to be checked,” Biden, who is Catholic and once said he believed that life began at conception, told reporters.
Biden also called the Texas law “un-American.”
“It just seems, I know this sounds ridiculous, almost un-American what we’re talking about. Not to debate about, I respect people who think, who don’t support Roe v. Wade. I respect their views. I respect those who believe life begins at the moment of conception and all. I respect that, don’t agree, but I respect that. Not going to impose that on people,” he said.
The law went into effect on Wednesday after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in rejecting a challenge by abortion providers.
The ruling did not address the merits of the law but rather justices found that plaintiffs were not due relief because, at present, no one has been fined or otherwise punished for providing abortion and summarily challenged the fine in a court of law.
“This order is not based on any conclusion about the constitutionality of Texas’s law, and in no way limits other procedurally proper challenges to the Texas law, including in Texas state courts,” the majority opinion states.
Nevertheless, liberals went into a frenzied tailspin over the ruling, with some even attacking the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg for having passed away.
“I’ve said this before but these days, Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s biggest legacy as a Justice (though not as an attorney) is Amy Coney Barrett,” Eric Michael Garcia, a correspondent for The Independent, said.
“In retrospect, maybe Ruth Bader Ginsburg should have stepped down from the Court in 2014,” another Twitter user said.
“Unless and until the Court gets expanded, the implications of Ginsburg’s decision not to retire during the first 6 years of Obama’s presidency are going to be earth-shattering,” another said.
In a statement to the Daily Mail, White House Karine Jean-Pierre said other federal agencies are also looking at what they can do to thwart the Texas bill, which was passed by duly elected representatives of the Lone Star States.
“The President specifically tasked with Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice to see what steps the federal government can take to ensure that women in Texas have access to safe and legal abortions as protected by Roe, and what legal tools we have to insulate women and providers from the impact of Texas,” she said.
As for Biden, his view of the life-ending procedure has “evolved” over the years, according to the Daily Mail.
“I’m prepared to accept that at the moment of conception there’s human life and being, but I’m not prepared to say that to other God-fearing, non-God-fearing people that have a different view,” he said in 2015.
