Kim Kardashian has spoken out against the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade, the landmark case that legalised abortion across the country nearly 50 years ago.
The 41-year-old billionaire business mogul took to her Instagram Stories to address the ruling on Friday, where she compared the Supreme Court’s decision on abortion to its recent expansion of gun rights. “In America, guns have more rights than women,” Kardashian wrote in her Instagram story.
The Skims founder then re-posted a series of tweets to her story, which were originally shared by writer and human rights lawyer Derecka Purnell.
“If this was about babies, there would be universal healthcare. Free education. Free daycare. Southern states would be doing all they can to drop the Black maternal mortality rate. This is about power and control,” Purnell tweeted.
In a second tweet shared by Kardashian, Purnell wrote: “Thankful to everyone who continues the fight for reproductive justice, and for the people who are joining that fight now because of this moment”.
On 24 June, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled 6-3 in favour of a Mississippi law that seeks to outlaw abortion at 15 weeks of pregnancy. In turn, the nation’s highest court has also overturned key precedents established by the 1973 decision in Roe v Wade as well as an affirming decision in 1992’s Planned Parenthood v Casey.
The decision comes after an initial draft opinion in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case at the centre of today’s ruling, was leaked in May and published by Politico. Now, millions of women across America seeking abortion services will have to travel hundreds of miles to access the procedure, as a number of states have already criminalised or effectively outlawed abortion.
The decision to overturn Roe v Wade is just one of the many key rulings the Supreme Court has issued this week before the beginning of summer recess. On Thursday, the court struck down a restrictive New York gun law which required people to demonstrate a particular need for carrying a gun in order to get a license to carry one in public. In the 6-3 ruling, the court’s conservative majority determined the law violated the Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms.”
Earlier in the day, Kardashian also reposted a statement from Michelle Obama, in which the former first lady expressed her heartbreak over the Supreme Court’s decision.
This is not the first time Kardashian has used her platform to speak out against gun violence. In May, the reality star called for stricter gun control laws in the wake of the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which took the lives of 19 children and two teachers.
“I find myself heartbroken, disgusted and furious about how little has been done by lawmakers to enact gun laws that protect our children,” Kardashian said in an essay shared with The Independent.
“There is no excuse and no justification for what happened. The current laws in our country around gun control are not protecting our children. We have to push lawmakers to enact laws that are fitting in today’s world,” she added.
The Kardashians star pushed for the banning of AR-15 style semi-automatic rifles, claiming that the assault weapons “are not a self-defense tool.” She went on to suggest that the Second Amendment, which granted Americans the right to possess a firearm, is irrelevant to today’s advancements in technology in the wake of hundreds of mass shootings.
Kardashian concluded her statement: “We can’t accept this as normal anymore. It’s not normal for a teenager to kill children. It’s not normal for our kids to be practicing active shooter drills in schools. It’s not normal to be shot while shopping for groceries. I’m not numbed by it. I will never be numbed by it.”
Kardashian joins a number of celebrities - including Hillary Clinton, Phoebe Bridgers, Taylor Swift, and Hailey Baldwin - who have denounced the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade.
Follow along for live coverage of the Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v Wade here.
