Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) was among the many concerned leaders expressing outrage after the U.S. Supreme Court released its decision this week to overturn Roe v. Wade, essentially ending — for now — the federally recognized right to an abortion after decades of federal protections for abortion.
Schiff pushed for action in Congress to protect abortion rights. Fundamentally, there’s nothing stopping Congress from putting national protections for abortion back in place — it’s simply a matter of garnering the kind of support needed to buoy such an initiative, although filibusters complicate what’s needed. “The Court’s decision to overturn Roe endangers women everywhere, by taking away their right to make their own health care choices,” Schiff said. “This court isn’t conservative – it’s partisan, with a socially backward agenda. They can’t be trusted to protect our rights, so the Congress must… Six unelected individuals just denied women all over America the right to make their own health care decisions. They did so after swearing to respect the Court’s decision in Roe. Congress must fight this in every way we can. Or this Court will return us to the Stone Age.”
In a follow-up post, Schiff pushed for the filibuster in the Senate to be abolished. The Senate’s filibuster rules allow for a minority in the chamber to block substantial progress, because the provisions demand that at least 60 Senators in the 100-member chamber agree before moving forward with most legislative initiatives. “Abolish the filibuster. Codify Roe,” as Schiff put it Friday. Abortion rights had been relying on the Roe ruling’s interpretations of existing law rather than explicit provisions in federal law.
As could be reasonably expected, large protest crowds have turned out across the U.S. in the wake of the court releasing its decision to overturn the decades-old Roe ruling. The Supreme Court itself was among sites where protesters showed up; on Friday, hours after the Supreme Court released its decision, thousands of demonstrators ended up in the streets of the nation’s capital. Now, state officials will be able to restrict or allow abortion as they see fit, and — although the precise and complete map of abortion access in the U.S. following the court’s new decision was not immediately clear — the process of imposing harsh new abortion restrictions has already started. On the flip side, governors in California and Massachusetts took action Friday to protect people from potential out-of-state proceedings connected to providing or receiving an abortion. There’s a potential such proceedings could emerge in states where abortion is or will be sharply restricted.
California authorities won’t “cooperate with any states that attempt to prosecute women or doctors for receiving or providing reproductive care,” California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom explained in a Twitter post. Newsom’s action was in the form of a new legislative measure he signed into law. Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker — a rare pro-abortion rights Republican — signed an executive order Friday that functions similarly. Among other specifics, Baker’s order outlines that Massachusetts authorities won’t be complying with any out-of-state extradition requests targeting someone who received, provided, or helped with obtaining an abortion. It’s obviously particularly disquieting that there’s even the possibility of authorities seeking the extradition of somebody just for an abortion — it only further exemplifies how serious the situation is becoming. Effects of individual states’ abortion restrictions might not end with their borders.
