President Donald Trump assailed White House rival Joe Biden on Tuesday for telling voters that he would seek to enshrine abortion rights in US law should the Supreme Court overturn Roe v Wade.
During a televised town hall late Monday, the Democratic nominee said he would aim to make the 1973 high court ruling that established a nationwide right to abortion as “the law of the land.”
“Wow. Joe Biden just took a more Liberal position on Roe v. Wade than Elizabeth Warren at her highest,” Trump tweeted, referring to the liberal senator who ran for the 2020 Democratic nomination.
“He also wants to PACK our great United States Supreme Court. This is what the Dems will do,” he added.
“Remember as they try changing positions before elections end. GET OUT AND VOTE!”
The abortion issue — contentious and sensitive for decades in American politics — became a featured talking point during the presidential race following the death last month of Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal icon.
Democrats fear that Trump’s nominee to replace Ginsburg on the bench, conservative Judge Amy Coney Barrett, would give the nine-member court enough support for overturning Roe.
During the NBC town hall, Biden was asked by a female voter about his plans should Barrett join the court and help upend women’s reproductive rights.
“Number 1, we don’t know exactly what she will do, although the expectation is that she may very well move to overrule Roe,” Biden replied.
“The only responsible response to that would be to pass legislation making Roe the law of the land. That’s what I would do,” he said in a brief response.
Biden, 77, is a Catholic who personally opposes abortion.
But in June 2019 he reversed his opposition to federal funding for most abortions as he sought to mollify critics in the left wing of his party.
AFP
