Biden, Psaki and pro-life groups react as Texas heartbeat law goes into effect
White House: Texas law ‘blatantly violates’ legal precedent
President Joe Biden has released multiple statements expressing his displeasure with Texas' "extreme" Senate Bill 8 over the past two days.
On Wednesday, Biden maintained that the law “blatantly violates the constitutional right established under Roe v. Wade and upheld as precedent for nearly half a century.” He warned that “the Texas law will significantly impair women’s access to the health care they need, particularly for communities of color and individuals with low incomes.” He stressed that “my administration is deeply committed to the constitutional right established in Roe v. Wade nearly five decades ago and will protect and defend that right.”
Biden elaborated on the efforts he wanted his administration to take to “protect and defend” Roe v. Wade in a statement released Thursday.
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He vowed to implement a “whole-of-government effort” to respond to Texas' law, specifically announcing his intention to ask “the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice to see what steps the federal government can take to ensure that women have access to safe and legal abortions in Texas as protected by Roe.”
“This law is so extreme it does not even allow for exceptions in the case of rape or incest,” he asserted. The president claimed that “millions of women" seeking abortions will "suffer.”
At a press briefing Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki characterized the law as an “extreme threat” to Roe v. Wade and called on Congress to ensure the “codification of Roe” into federal law. She lamented that Texas' law is the latest example of “efforts by some in the country to prevent a woman from having the right to choose.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
