While speaking on the 51st anniversary of the Roe v. Wade ruling, President Joe Biden condemned the risks women have faced since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned it in 2022:
“I said on that day that Roe was overturned, the health and lives of women in this nation would now be at risk, and that has, unfortunately, proven to be true. They’ve been at risk. It made them at risk. Put them at risk. Today, in 2024, in America, women are turned away from emergency rooms, forced to travel hundreds of miles to get basic health care in another state that may have a different rule, forced to go to court to plead for help … A mother of two in Texas who was pregnant with her third child — from her doctor, she received the news that no one wants to hear: the life of the child and her own life were at risk if she continued her pregnancy. But instead of being able to receive care from her doctor, she was blocked by the state of Texas attorney general and the state Supreme Court. Think about that. As she and her family were going through the frightening, heartbreaking ordeal, she had to fight extreme politicians in the court. They turned a deeply private and painful matter into a public matter. She ultimately had to leave the state to get the help she needed to protect herself and her ability to have more children in the future. The cruelty is astounding — an affront to a woman’s dignity, being told by extreme politicians to wait, to get sicker and sicker to the point where her life may be in danger, before you can get the care you need. That cruel reality is a result of extreme Republicans who for years have made it their mission to end Roe v. Wade.”
