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Politics
Breanna Robinson
Jun 24, 2022
A post-Roe v. Wade America: Supreme Court overturns abortion rights landmark
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Former President Barack Obama was reminded of what he said about abortions in 2009 after Roe v Wade was overturned.
On Friday (24 June), Obama took to his official Twitter to share a thread of messages about the Supreme Court's ruling.
"Today, the Supreme Court not only reversed nearly 50 years of precedent, it relegated the most intensely personal decision someone can make to the whims of politicians and ideologues—attacking the essential freedoms of millions of Americans," he captioned the initial post.
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\u201cToday, the Supreme Court not only reversed nearly 50 years of precedent, it relegated the most intensely personal decision someone can make to the whims of politicians and ideologues\u2014attacking the essential freedoms of millions of Americans.\u201d— Barack Obama (@Barack Obama) 1656080802
In another post, he shared a link to a statement he and his wife Michelle Obama penned on Medium in May about the draft decision to overturn Roe.
\u201cFor more than a month, we\u2019ve known this day was coming\u2014but that doesn\u2019t make it any less devastating. Here are my thoughts from when we first saw the draft ruling: https://t.co/aegHc7AoTm\u201d— Barack Obama (@Barack Obama) 1656080802
However, people didn't hesitate to rehash what the former president said about abortion rights in the past.
One wrote: "Reminder that Obama ran on codifying Roe in 2008 and then abandoned it almost immediately, calling it "not my highest legislative priority," and opting, instead, to focus on a bailout for banks."
"Obama promised to codify women's reproductive freedom as one of the first things he'd planned to do in office. He had a supermajority in Congress, meaning there was no way Republicans could've blocked him.
He decided it wasn't the right time," another added.
\u201cThis you?\u201d— Manu (punless era) (@Manu (punless era)) 1656087338
A third wrote: "Wasn't abortion not a top priority for you?
"We got receipts."
\u201cWasn\u2019t abortion not a top priority for you?\n\nWe got receipts. \ud83e\udd37\ud83c\udffe\u200d\u2640\ufe0f\u201d— TEE FRANKLIN HARLEY QUINN WRITER (@TEE FRANKLIN HARLEY QUINN WRITER) 1656085343
In 2009, Obama said that he favoured abortion rights for women but passing a law guaranteeing those rights was not a top priority for him while trying to avoid inflaming divisions over the matter.
"I think that the most important thing we can do to tamp down some of the anger surrounding this issue is to focus on those areas that we can agree on," Obama said at a news conference during his first 100 days in the White House.
Reuters also noted that he addressed that the number of US teen pregnancies had also begun to rise after a decline, Obama said he started a task force within his Domestic Policy Council.
The force was set to work with groups that support abortion rights and oppose abortion to gauge how to deal with the situation.
White a candidate, Obama supported the Freedom of Choice Act, which was set to eliminate state, federal, and local restrictions on abortions.
He also noted that his stance on abortion "has been very consistent."
"I think abortion is a moral issue and an ethical issue.
"I think, look, this is an issue that people have to wrestle with, and families and individual women have to wrestle with."
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