Biden lashes out at extreme MAGA agenda
Advocates worry other rights at risk in abortion law furore
Joe Biden has described Donald Trump’s followers as the “most extreme political organisation in recent American history” as he suggested they could try to ban birth control in the United States and make LGBTQ children sit in different classrooms.
The US President lambasted supporters of his predecessor’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) agenda in the wake of the US Supreme Court’s apparent decision to overturn Roe v Wade — the landmark 1973 ruling enshrining the right to abortion.
Three of the five Supreme Court Justices thought to be supporting the move were nominated by Trump.
Biden’s comments marked a sharp escalation of rhetoric from a President who came to office pledging to unite a divided country.
On Tuesday, a leaked draft majority Supreme Court opinion suggested Roe v Wade would be struck down, leaving laws on abortion to individual states — many of which will ban it.
Speaking at the White House yesterday, Biden said: “What are the next things that are going to be attacked? Because this MAGA crowd is really the most extreme political organisation that’s existed in American history, in recent American history.”
In what appeared to be a reference to Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, which forbids classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in primary schools, he added: “This is about a lot more than abortion. What happens if you have a state that changes the law saying that children who are LGBTQ cannot be in classrooms with other children? Is that legit under the way the decision is written?”
The draft’s provocative rhetoric is generating concern that LGBTQ advances and other matters based on the right to privacy could be vulnerable in a newly hostile political environment.
Biden also suggested that the right of married couples to access birth control could be at risk.
He referred to the Griswold v Connecticut ruling in 1965 that overturned a state ban on married couples using contraceptives.
Biden said: “There had been a law saying married couples could not purchase birth control in their own bedroom and use it.”
He added “my guess is the guys on the Supreme Court now” thought that Griswold v Connecticut had been a “bad decision”.
The case said that a right to privacy exists that bars states from interfering in married couples’ right to buy and use contraceptives.
Cases like Obergefell v Hodges, which legalised gay marriage, are based at least in part on that same right to privacy.
LGBTQ rights have made rapid progress over the past decade, and
public opinion overall has become much more supportive. But especially over the past year there has been a wave of bills in state legislatures aimed at transgender youth sports and healthcare, as well as talking about LGBTQ issues in certain classrooms. Backers of those bills generally argue they’re needed to protect kids and the rights of parents.
Against that backdrop, the draft opinion, if finalised, could “send up a flare” to conservative activists, said Sharon Mcgowan, legal director at Lambda Legal.
“Overturning Roe will be most dangerous because of the signal it will send lower courts to disregard all the other precedents that exist,” she said.
“It’s starting with abortion. It’s not going to end with abortion,” said Mini Timmaraju, the president of Naral Pro-choice America.
Meanwhile, Ron Desantis, the Republican governor of Florida, described
the leak of the Supreme Court draft as a “judicial insurrection”, and an attempt to “kneecap” the court.
Desantis, who has recently signed a bill banning abortions after 15 weeks, said: “To have that leak out the way it did was really unprecedented.
“I think it was intentional to try to whip up a lot of the public, and potentially try to bully one of them into changing their positions.
“You want to talk about an insurrection — that’s a judicial insurrection to be taking that out and trying to kneecap a potential majority through extra-constitutional means.”
If the Supreme Court confirms the decision to overturn Roe v Wade then American women will be able to go to Canada for abortions, a Canadian official said. Karina Gould, Canada’s minister of families, said: “I don’t see why we would not. If they, people, come here and need access, certainly, you know, that’s a service that would be provided.” — Agencies