While hundreds began gathering outside the US Supreme Court to protest its announcement that it would end constitutional protections for abortion care, Conservatives began celebrating the decision that would officially end 50 years of federal protections for the procedure.
“God Bless Justice Thomas. God Bless Justice Alito,” tweeted Ohio Rep Jim Jordan, minutes after the high court released that they’d ruled in favour of a Mississippi law that outlaws abortion at 15 weeks of pregnancy while also overturning key precedents established by the landmark 1973 decision in Roe v Wade as well as an affirming decision in 1992’s Planned Parenthood v Casey.
“Life wins,” the Republican politician added, echoing a sentiment picked up by other right-leaning politicians in the immediate aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe, a decision that has affirmed constitutional protections for abortion care up to 23 or 24 weeks of pregnancy.
“Glory to God,” tweeted Colorado Rep Lauren Boebert, who began her message by picking up Mr Jordan’s message of pronouncing, “LIFE WINS,” in all caps.
Writing for the court’s majority, conservative Justice Samuel Alito claims that the Roe decision was “egregiously wrong from the start.”
“The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives,” Justice Alito wrote in the 6-3 ruling.
Representative Chip Roy of Texas gave a simple response as he headed into votes on Friday.
“It’s about time”, he told The Independent.
Representative Troy Nehls of Texas also celebrated the ruling.
“Great decision”, he said. “God bless our conservative Supreme Court justices.”
Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana, one of the most conservative members on abortion, celebrated the ruling.
“It's an amazing day you can't overstate the importance of this”, he told The Independent. “Many of us have been working for it our entire adult lives and the court has finally corrected an egregious wrong.”
Senator Josh Hawley, whose wife, Erin Morrow Hawley, was a senior counsel to the appellate team at Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal advocacy group, and helped coordinate Supreme Court filings in the Mississippi case, said he was “immensely proud” of his spouse’s work.
“Erin was counsel to Mississippi in this case. She litigated this case, wrote the brief of this case along with the solicitor general of Mississippi and so she has litigated this with Mississippi since the court granted cert on it, a year ago now,” the Missouri Senator said during a press call. “This is obviously a very, very big victory for her personally and I’m just immensely, immensely proud of her.”
Outside an already crowded Supreme Court, a beaming Marjorie Taylor Greene could be seen getting jostled and heckled by pro-abortion rights activists as the Republican from Georgia voiced her overwhelming support and enthusiasm for Friday’s decision.
“I’m so happy!” the grinning congresswoman announced while being elbowed through the crowd, who at one point could be heard chanting: “Lock her up.”
“This is the greatest,” she began saying before her voice was drowned out by protestors shouting over her grinning pronouncements.
Senator Ted Cruz took to calling Friday’s decision in the Dobb’s case “nothing short of a massive victory for life” and added that leaving the states in control of whether to ban the procedure, which could force an untold number of women and girls to carry pregnancies to term, “will save millions of lives”.
“Roe was wrong the day it was decided, and it has been wrong every day since then,” the Texas Republican tweeted.
“This is a momentous day, and yet the fight for life doesn’t end with the Dobbs decision. It simply begins a new chapter,” he added, saying that he’s “proud to stand for life” in the US Senate and will continue to do so as “we navigate the path ahead”.
Donald Trump took the opportunity to highlight his work appointing three Conservative Supreme Court justices, saying in a statement that “today’s decision, which is the biggest WIN for LIFE in a generation,” was only made possible “because I delivered everything as promised, including nominating and getting three highly respected and strong Constitutionalists confirmed to the United States Supreme Court”.
His son, Donald Trump Jr, similarly praised his father for appointing Neil Gorsuch in 2017, Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, and Amy Coney Barrett in 2020, three of the six Conservative judges who voted in favour of overturning Roe.
“Proud of my father for what he has accomplished today,” the eldest son and namesake of the former US president tweeted. “He gave our movement 3 strong pro-life Supreme Court Justices and despite the Dems and the leftwing media doing everything they could to stop their confirmations, especially with Kavanaugh, he never wavered!!!”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy started by taking a moment to celebrate the news that he described as being proof that the nation “can now live up to its core principle that ALL are CREATED equal. Not BORN equal” before he began telling the Biden administration that it was now a “Constitutional duty” to protect justices and institutions that support the end of Roe.
“President Biden has a Constitutional duty to keep Americans safe—he must direct the Justice Department to deter and prevent violence against Supreme Court Justices, churches, and pro-life pregnancy centers. Now. Before it’s too late,” the California Republican tweeted, later adding that the “voiceless will finally have a voice”.
Republican Governor Kay Ivey praised the conservative-majority US Supreme Court for overturning on Friday, calling it a “historic day”.
“This is a historic day, and I could not be more proud as a governor, a Christian and a woman to see this misguided and detrimental decision overturned,” said the governor of Alabama, a state that has a near-total ban on abortion law that predates Roe, which hasn’t been in effect since 1973, but will go back into effect, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that focuses on sexual and reproductive health.
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, Jenna Ellis, a former lawyer on Donald Trump’s legal team, and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise all rallied around the same congratulatory message of “life wins”, a phrase that quickly became a trending hashtag for the Twitter users who celebrated the high court’s decision.
“For half a century unelected judges have dictated America’s abortion laws,” the RNC chairwoman continued in her post. “Republicans will continue to advocate for life, uphold the law, and stand against an extreme Democrat Party’s pro-abortion agenda.”
