Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared to weep with joy as she heard news that Roe v Wade could be overturned – and was instantly scolded on social media.
Ms Greene, who only last week accused the Catholic Church of being under Satan’s control, wept on Monday night as she called news that Supreme Court justices were considering overruling Roe “a victory for God”.
“More like a victory for the Devil,” one Twitter user wrote of the Republican’s reaction to a leaked “first draft” showing the court’s alleged intent to overturn the landmark 1973 ruling on abortion.
Another user added: “A theocratic fascist shedding tears of joy as her country slips into the dark ages with one of the most sophisticated cars in the world in the background. I don’t know if there is another image more cynically American than this one”.
In a video released on social media on Monday night, Ms Greene appeared to weep and said: “I just wanna make an announcement and I’m sorry I’m just overwhelmed with emotion. This is the best news of our lifetime.
“There’s a draft opinion out now to overturn Roe v Wade and this is a great victory,” Ms Greene added of the news. “This is a great victory for God and the unborn who have been innocently slain for years, [for] my entire life time”.
The draft, which was leaked to Politico, said the majority-conservative Supreme Court could overturn Roe within weeks, with the current court term due to end in July.
The draft, which was signed by conservative Justice Samuel Alito, went as far as suggesting that the court had decided to throw-out the 1973 ruling and another from 1992, which allowed states to make their own rules on abortion access.
It argued that “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” and “must be overruled”.
“It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives,” the document, which was later confirmed as genuine by Chief Justice John Roberts, claimed. The Supreme Court has not commented publicly on the leak.
The court is due to come to a decision over a challenge to a Mississippi ban on abortion after 15 weeks of becoming pregnant, which has been seen as the biggest challenge to Roe in years.
Ms Greene, a vocal opponent of abortion, added on Twitter on Tuesday: “Life starts at conception. Our constitution never did and never will give the right to murder another human being in the womb. Abortion was always wrong.”
She was last week labelled a “disgrace” for her comments about the Catholic Church being controlled by Satan, and for her criticism of the institution’s acceptance of refugees.
Ms Greene also appeared to claim in the same interview that Satan was responsible for encouraging women to seek an abortion.
