Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 07:07 pm
After the Supreme Court spanked Texas Republicans for assuming they could cut off women’s Constitutionally-protected rights today in the Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt decision, Secretary Hillary Clinton called it a victory for women across America but pointed out that the fight is far from over.
Clinton warned, “In Texas and across the country, a woman’s constitutional right to make her own health decisions is under attack. In the first three months of 2016, states introduced more than 400 measures restricting access to abortion.”
“The Supreme Court’s decision in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt is a victory for women across America. By striking down politically motivated restrictions that made it nearly impossible for Texans to exercise their full reproductive rights, the Court upheld every woman’s right to safe, legal abortion, no matter where she lives.”
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“We’ve seen a concerted, persistent attack on women’s health and rights at the federal level. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has said women should be punished for having abortions,” the presumptive 2016 Democratic presidential nominee said in her statement. “He also pledged to defund Planned Parenthood and appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade.”
Clinton pointed out that this exact issue is at stake in 2016 because the next president will appoint Supreme Court nominees, “Today’s decision is a reminder of how much is at stake in this election. We need a President who will defend women’s health and rights and appoint Supreme Court justices who recognize Roe v. Wade as settled law. We must continue to protect access to safe and legal abortion – not just on paper, but in reality.”
Republicans have been blocking President Obama’s SCOTUS pick because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) thought it would be a brilliant albeit unprecedented move to leave the court open for a year and then Republicans could use it as a Get Out the Vote strategy.
McConnell has continued this destructive path even as Donald Trump became the presumptive nominee.
Meanwhile McConnell and Senate Republicans have turned their back on one of the best nominees the President could have made – a man of stellar reputation, who is fair and ethical and not of any “side”. This is the kind of person the court desperately needs so that it is not turned into a partisan whip.
Hillary Clinton knows what’s at stake — the very basic core of human rights for women, the right to legal medical care, the right to autonomy, the right to live. No matter how someone feels about abortion, making a safe abortion illegal is not the way to stop abortions. Studies show that access to free or affordable birth control is the way to lower the abortion rate.
Clinton has spent her life fighting this cause, long before it was cool. It was beyond short-sighted for Republicans to hand this to her as an issue in the 2016 election. It’s not as if she is short of issues upon which she easily excels their presumptive nominee, Donald Trump.
They are running the Archie Bunker hate-monger who sees women as “dogs” and “fat pigs” and doesn’t think they have a right to their own bodies against the woman who has been fighting for women’s rights around the globe for decades.
What was Mitch McConnell thinking? This is the way to hand young women and married women a reason to get motivated to vote Democratic. That is exactly the opposite of what the Republican Party needs in order to win a national election.
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Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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