Reports emerged Monday evening that the United States Supreme Court has voted to strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, which ruled that the Constitution protects a pregnant woman's liberty to choose to have an abortion.
President Joe Biden, a Democrat who supports a woman's right to choose, responded to the news on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One, Biden said that the Supreme Court overturning Roe V. Wade would radically change America's legal system.
"It would mean that every other decision related to the notion of privacy is thrown into question," the president said, per Axios, referring to the decision in the 1965 case Griswold v. Connecticut.
Griswold v. Connecticut ruled that the Constitution protects the liberty of married couples to buy and use contraceptives.
The Supreme Court striking down Roe v. Wade "would be a fundamental shift," Biden warned.
"If the rationale of the decision as released were to be sustained, a whole range of rights are in question...If this decision holds, it's really quite a radical decision," he told reporters.
If the Supreme Court were to overturn Roe V. Wade, abortion would no longer be federally protected, so each state would have to decide whether to allow the procedure or not.
According to Biden, if the Supreme Court indeed decides to overturn Roe vs. Wade, "it will fall on our nation’s elected officials at all levels of government to protect a woman's right to choose."
"[M]y administration argued strongly before the Court in defense of Roe v. Wade ... I believe that a woman's right to choose is fundamental, Roe has been the law of the land for almost fifty years, and basic fairness and the stability of our law demand that it not be overturned."
Without Roe V. Wade, abortion would immediately become illegal in 13 states -- and it would be restricted in some way in at least 26 states, The New York Post reported, citing an analysis from the Guttmacher Institute.
The 13 states where it would become illegal immediately have what's called a "trigger ban" tied to the landmark decision, while five states have laws passed after Roe that restrict nearly all abortions.
Another dozen states have six or eight-week abortion restrictions in effect, and an additional four red states -- Indiana, Montana, Nebraska and Florida -- are gearing up to pass restricting laws.
