Media Contact: Patrick Wright -- Patrick.Wright@mail.house.gov
Washington, D.C. — Rep. Donald M. Payne, Jr. issued the following statement regarding the report in Politico that the U.S. Supreme Court plans to strike down the landmark, 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade that guaranteed abortion rights to all American women. The report stated that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito had written a majority draft opinion in February that stated the right to an abortion should be decided by voters in U.S. states and not the federal government. The document was written as a ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a case challenging a Mississippi law that banned abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. If the document becomes the final ruling, it will reverse almost 50 years of court precedent.
“This absolute tragedy is the direct result of the continued radicalism of the Republican Party and its turn to the far right. Now, women across the country are in jeopardy of falling backwards to a dark past when access to a safe abortion procedure was difficult or impossible. I have always been a proud supporter of a woman’s right to choose because I know that we must trust women to make their own health care decisions rather than dictating to them.
There is a solution to this urgent problem that must happen now. Last September, I joined Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives in passing the Women’s Health Protection Act. This legislation would guarantee the legal right to an abortion for all women nationwide. The U.S. Senate must act now to pass this bill and, if necessary, Senate leaders must abolish the filibuster to allow an up or down vote to be held. There is no other action that would rise to the urgency of this moment than doing whatever it takes to pass this bill. The American people are watching and they are counting on us to act. We must not let them down.”
Original source can be found here.
