US ‘at serious risk’ of GOP enacting national abortion ban, White House says

‘You’ve heard ... Mitch McConnell and other Republicans in Congress are talking about a national ban on a woman’s right to choose’

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Republicans have made clear their desire to enact laws which would force women to carry unwanted pregnancies to term by banning abortion if the Supreme Court acts to overrule the landmark Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood v Casey decisions.

Asked during the daily White House briefing on Monday how at risk the US was of having a complete abortion ban implemented, Ms Psaki replied: “I think we’re at serious risk”.

“You’ve heard ... Mitch McConnell and other Republicans in Congress are talking about a national ban on a woman’s right to choose,” she said, noting that “dozens and dozens” of GOP members of the House and Senate had signed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to overturn Roe and Casey, and “advocating for severe restrictions on a woman's right to choose and a woman's right to make choices about her own body”.

Ms Psaki also noted that Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves had in a recent interview declined to say one way or another whether he would support a challenge to another set of Supreme Court precedents which guarantee Americans’ right to use contraception, which some religious conservatives also oppose.

She added that the Biden administration — the White House Counsel’s Office, the White House Gender Policy Council, and the Department of Justice — are looking at a “range of considerations” towards taking “every step we can to protect women's fundamental rights and protect rights beyond that”.

Ms Psaki also warned that a reversal of Roe and Casey could portend decisions to reverse other landmark cases, including Obergefell v Hodges, the 2015 case which legalised same-sex marriage across the US, and the 2003 Lawrence v Texas decision which made laws criminalising sexual acts between two members of the same sex unconstitutional.