OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
House Speaker and Democrat California Rep. Nancy Pelosi made a startling announcement to her caucus after the Supreme Court ended Roe V Wade.
She said that the House would “further codify freedoms which Americans currently enjoy,” The Washington Examiner reported.
“Following the release of the draft decision, our pro-choice House Democratic Majority has been hard at work preparing for the possibility of this tragic outcome. Our Caucus has been exploring avenues to protect the health and freedom of American women. Among them is legislation that:
“Protects women’s most intimate and personal data stored in reproductive health apps. Many fear that this information could be used against women by a sinister prosecutor in a state that criminalizes abortion,” she said.
“Makes clear that Americans have the Constitutional right to travel freely and voluntarily throughout the United States.
“Once again passes the Women’s Health Protection Act: landmark legislation to enshrine Roe v. Wade into the law of the land,” the Speaker said.
The Speaker then went on to attack the institution of the Supreme Court and its Justices.
“In his disturbing concurrence, Justice Clarence Thomas confirmed many of our deepest fears about where this decision may lead: taking aim at additional long-standing precedent and cherished privacy rights, from access to contraception and in-vitro fertilization to marriage equality. Legislation is being introduced to further codify freedoms which Americans currently enjoy. More information to follow,” the Speaker said.
“It is still appalling to me that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court would agree that a Constitutional right does not exist if it was not spelled out explicitly and in public when the 14th Amendment was ratified over 150 years ago,” she said.
“While this extremist Supreme Court works to punish and control the American people, Democrats must continue our fight to expand freedom in America. Doing so is foundational to our oath of office and our fidelity to the Constitution.
“It is clear from how Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell stacked the Supreme Court that elections have ramifications. It is essential that we protect and expand our pro-choice Majorities in the House and Senate in November so that we can eliminate the filibuster so that we can restore women’s fundamental rights – and freedom for every American,” she said.
During an interview on MSNBC, Pelosi spoke about the Court ruling last Friday to overturn the landmark case that legalized abortion.
“What is happening here? What is happening here? A woman’s fundamental health decisions are her own to make in consultation with her doctor, her faith, her family. Not some right-wing politicians that Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell packed the court with,” Pelosi angrily began.
“While Republicans seek to punish and control women, Democrats will keep fighting ferociously to enshrine Roe v. Wade into the law of the land. This cruel ruling is outrageous and heart-wrenching. But make no mistake, again, it’s all on the ballot in November. The Supreme Court has ended a constitutional right,” she added.
“This is — 50 years proclaimed a constitutional right. What happened today was historic in many respects. Historic in that it had not granted, recognized that constitutional right, and then reversed it. This is a first. And, again, just before it imposed a constitutional right to allow for concealed weapons. How about those justices coming before the senators and saying that they — they respect that state decisis, the precedent of the court, that they respected the right of privacy in the Constitution of the United States? Did you hear that? Were they not telling the truth then?” she added.
“Again — just getting to the gun issue, because, really, in preparation for this morning, I was really in an exalted state about what happened in the United States Senate yesterday. Counterpoint to the dangerous decision of this Trumpian Supreme Court that they made yesterday, but a way to take us to, as the bill is called ‘community safety,’ the bipartisan Safer Communities Act,” she sai
