President Joe Biden sounded the alarm, predicting the Republican-controlled Supreme Court will look to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark ruling that found the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, if reproductive rights are dismantled.
Biden issued his remarks as the nation continues to reel from the news that a leaked draft opinion indicated the Supreme Court's ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization will move to strike down Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark decision that protects a person's right to choose reproductive healthcare without excessive government restriction.
They are his most explicit warning to date, coming after Senate Democrats attempted to codify Roe's protections into law by pushing for a vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act, but Republicans—with help from Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia—blocked the legislation.
Speaking at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Chicago, Biden said:
"It's not just the brutality of taking away a woman's right to her body... but it also, if you read the opinion... basically says there's no such thing as the right to privacy."
"If that holds ... mark my words: They are going to go after the Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage."
Referring to Republicans, he told the press that "as we go forward, you're going to hear me talking more about what we've done and what they're trying to do." He said the party is "petty," "extreme," and "cowered by [former President Donald] Trump."
Biden, who is a devout Catholic, stressed that he is personally opposed to abortion but that he does not believe others should be forced to abide by his own beliefs, cautioning that Roe falling would also place Griswold v. Connecticut, which cites the right to privacy in safeguarding a woman's right to privacy in regard to contraception, on the chopping block.
Since Biden's remarks, others have also taken to social media to express similar concerns.
Their goal isn\u2019t just to ban gay marriage \u2014 it\u2019s to deny being gay altogether. But they (GOP) don\u2019t see it as persecution \u2014 they view it the same as the mask mandates. Their current trajectory is genuinely alarming.https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/11/politics/joe-biden-supreme-court-abortion-same-sex-marriage/index.html\u00a0\u2026— Floss Obama\ud83d\ude4c\ud83c\udffe (@Floss Obama\ud83d\ude4c\ud83c\udffe) 1652422761
Remember when a moron called Kimberly Davis from Kentucky denied gay couple marriage certificate bcs gay marriage would ruin sanctity of her four marriages? She became hero to conservatives\n\nBiden's right, if Supreme Court overturns Roe, same-sex marriage will be next\n\n#Freshpic.twitter.com/5giS4Ss6EB— Melani Taylor\ud83c\udf0a\ud83c\udf0aResister (@Melani Taylor\ud83c\udf0a\ud83c\udf0aResister) 1652437711
Considering the draft document explicitly called out the gay marriage rulings as being "aberrations", I think we all see this coming.\n\nHowever, we need to remember: Stonewall was a riot, and bricks are plentiful.https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/11/politics/joe-biden-supreme-court-abortion-same-sex-marriage/index.html\u00a0\u2026— Samantha Ferreira - Everyone's Sakura Wars Auntie (@Samantha Ferreira - Everyone's Sakura Wars Auntie) 1652372704
If they overturn same-sex marriage, the betrayal I\u2019ll feel will be so deep that I think I\u2019ll finally leave America and never come back. I spent too much of my life fighting for this to simply watch a bunch of bigots take it all away out of spitehttps://www.cnn.com/2022/05/11/politics/joe-biden-supreme-court-abortion-same-sex-marriage/index.html?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=news_tab\u00a0\u2026— Skylar Baker-Jordan (@Skylar Baker-Jordan) 1652357275
Without a doubt. Same sex marriage will end, trans people will be denied hormones, surgeries, POC, women will be denied the right to vote. WAKE THE HELL UP AND VOTE.\nBiden predicts that if Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, same-sex marriage will be nexthttps://www.cnn.com/2022/05/11/politics/joe-biden-supreme-court-abortion-same-sex-marriage/index.html\u00a0\u2026— Sonuva PreacherMan (@Sonuva PreacherMan) 1652342327
Will be very crazy to gain and lose equal marriage rights in such a short amount of time https://www.axios.com/2022/05/12/biden-roe-v-wade-same-sex-marriage\u00a0\u2026— Donny (@Donny) 1652394001
Every day it feels like we\u2019re moving closer and closer to @MargaretAtwood\u2019s prescient dystopian vision mapped out in The Handmaid\u2019s Tale. This has to be so exciting for 43% of the country.https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/11/politics/joe-biden-supreme-court-abortion-same-sex-marriage/index.html\u00a0\u2026— A.D. Richard (@A.D. Richard) 1652374937
https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/11/politics/joe-biden-supreme-court-abortion-same-sex-marriage/index.html\u00a0\u2026\nBiden predicts that if Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, same-sex marriage will be next\nNo doubt about it! It's going to be rough road ahead!— Mary McLane (@Mary McLane) 1652339736
I believe he is right.https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/11/politics/joe-biden-supreme-court-abortion-same-sex-marriage/index.html\u00a0\u2026— Barbara Katz-Chobert (@Barbara Katz-Chobert) 1652379041
Republicans will likely attack:\n\nSame sex marriage\nBirth Control\nWomen voting\nInterracial marriage\nThen the 13th amendment as a stretch goalhttps://www.cnn.com/2022/05/11/politics/joe-biden-supreme-court-abortion-same-sex-marriage/index.html\u00a0\u2026— Thomas Keepout (@Thomas Keepout) 1652363377
Earlier this month, Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland issued a similarly ominous warning of "Handmaid's Tale-type regulation" after the leaked draft oponion made headlines.
Raskin noted Roe v. Wade hinged on the right to privacy and the erosion of that right, which is not explicitly outlined in the Constitution, "would appear to be an invitation to have Handmaid's Tale type anti-feminist regulation and legislation all over the country."
The Handmaid's Tale, a novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, was written at the height of the Reagan administration and satirized political, social, and religious trends of the 1980s.
Raskin's remarks were rife with alarm, likening the death knell of abortion rights to the rise of a society like Gilead, the one depicted in the novel, in which women are forced to bear children against their will.
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The Washington Post