RT
A person carries a cross outside the Supreme Court in Washington, DC, June 25, 2022 © AP / Steve Helber
President Joe Biden claimed on Friday that a Supreme Court ruling restricting abortion access has made the US “an outlier among developed nations.” However, while some states have pressed ahead with banning the procedure, others are writing laws in line with other wealthy nations, and Democratic-run states are pushing far more permissive policies than many European countries.
Biden addressed the nation after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v Wade, a 1973 ruling that guaranteed the absolute right to a first-trimester abortion and limited rights in the second. Writing the majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito argued that Roe v Wade rested on an “egregiously wrong” and “exceptionally weak” interpretation of the Constitution, and that by striking down this ruling, the court would “return the issue of abortion” to state legislatures.
“With this decision, the conservative majority of the Supreme Court shows how extreme it is, how far removed they are from the majority of this country,” Biden said at the White House. “They have made the United States an outlier among developed nations in the world. But this decision must not be the final word.”
Despite Biden’s proclamation, abortion access in the US is now more in line with the international norm than before, at least for the moment…