House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said some things on Monday that could lead critics to accuse her of making a volatile situation following the leak of a draft Supreme Court ruling even more dangerous.
A week ago, someone leaked a draft opinion to POLITICO written by Justice Samuel Alito and agreed to by four more of the court’s conservative justices overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion in 1973.
On Monday, Pelosi praised protesters who she said are expressing “righteous anger” — even as riot fencing has gone up around the Supreme Court building and some protestors ‘visited’ the homes of two conservative justices over the weekend.
“While we have seen and heard extraordinary anguish in our communities,” Pelosi, D-Calif., said, “we have been moved by how so many have channeled their righteous anger into meaningful action: planning to march and mobilize to make their voices heard.”
In the statement, Pelosi also attacked Republicans and the Supreme Court over the expected ruling, and says that Democrats will “fight relentlessly to enshrine Roe v. Wade as the law of the land.”
“Republicans have made clear that their goal will be to seek to criminalize abortion nationwide,” Pelosi said. “Republican state legislators across the country are already advancing extreme new laws, seeking to arrest doctors for offering reproductive care, ban abortion entirely with no exceptions, and even charge women with murder who exercise their right to choose.”
Fox News :
Pelosi’s statement comes just two days before the Senate is set to take a procedural vote on a bill that would codify abortion protections at a federal level, superseding any state laws on the matter. But the bill is almost certain not to pass, as Republicans oppose it and in the 50-50 Senate, Democrats don’t have the votes to break a filibuster.
Protestors organized by “Shut Down DC” are expected at the home of Justice Samuel Alito, author of the leaked draft opinion, Monday evening.
Some Republicans, meanwhile, are alleging that those protests are against the law, the network added.
They are citing a federal law that makes it illegal to “picket or parade” outside a courthouse or a judge’s residence “with the intent of influencing any judge, juror, witness, or court officer, in the discharge of his duty.”
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