Overnight Health Care: Anti-abortion groups see chance to overturn Roe v. Wade with Kennedy retirement
Overnight Health Care: Anti-abortion groups see chance to overturn Roe v. Wade with Kennedy retirement | HHS watchdog to probe detention center conditions | VA pick vows to oppose privatization
Happy Wednesday, and welcome to Overnight Health Care. We hope you like Supreme Court fights, because that’s all you’re going to hear about for the next few months. Because, basically…
Summer is canceled. https://t.co/IsOfE6bvqv
— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) 27 June 2018
On that note, and because there is a health care angle to everything, anti-abortion groups see Justice Kennedy’s retirement as an opening to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Anti-abortion groups have counted on President Trump getting the opportunity to nominate at least one more Supreme Court justice. And with Justice Anthony Kennedy’s announcement Wednesday that he is retiring, they have that chance.
Replacing Kennedy — a swing vote who has supported abortions rights — with a “pro-life” conservative gives those groups their best chance in a generation to overturn, or weaken, the decision in Roe.
From the Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-abortion group in DC:
“Justice Kennedy’s retirement from the Supreme Court marks a pivotal moment for the fight to ensure every unborn child is welcomed and protected under the law.”
From American’s United for Life, the self-proclaimed legal arm of the “pro-life” movement:
“Now that Justice Anthony Kennedy — a 25-year defender of abortion on the Supreme Court and the key vote to perpetuate Roe v. Wade — is retiring, we urge President Trump to nominate a committed constitutionalist to the Supreme Court who will hew to the intended meaning of the nation’s charter and refrain from employing it as a means of social engineering.”
The gravity of the situation isn’t lost on abortion rights groups, which used the following words in their reactions: “terrifying,” “dire,” “deep crisis,” “enormous and terrifying.”
From Planned Parenthood:
“The significance of today’s news cannot be overstated: The right to access abortion in this country is on the line. With this vacancy, Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell hold the balance of the court in their hands — and with it, the legal right to access abortion in this country. President Trump has promised to only appoint justices who will overturn Roe v. Wade. The idea of Trump having his choice to fill another vacancy is terrifying for not only abortion rights, but for our ability to live free from discrimination in this country.” – Dawn Laguens, executive vice president.
From Reps. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), co-chairs of the congressional Pro-Choice Caucus:
“For decades, Roe v. Wade has protected women’s fundamental right to control our own bodies and make our own decisions.
