Senator and 2020 presidential candidate Cory Booker (D-NJ) promises to make Roe v. Wade the law of the land and fully fund Planned Parenthood in the wake of several states passing strict anti-abortion legislation.
In a Wednesday interview with BuzzFeed News, Booker revealed that he is joining fellow White House hopeful Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) in pledging to nominate judges to the Supreme Court who will uphold Roe v. Wade. However, the New Jersey Democrat is vowing to go a step further by signing legislation passed by Congress which would codify Roe v. Wade — even if the decision is overturned by the Supreme Court.
“Right now I am calling for it, even though obviously with Mitch McConnell and a [majority Republican] Senate, we would not see a vote” Booker told BuzzFeed News. “We need to pass it through the House and Senate, and I look forward to signing that law when I become president.”
Further, Booker vowed as president to end the Hyde Amendment — a federal law that bars taxpayer funding of abortion and has saved the lives of over two million unborn babies — and to fully fund Planned Parenthood. The White House contender said he would also “expand Medicaid and Medicare to find a way to help low-income women not only have access to reproductive care but have access to prenatal care and postpartum care.”
We must pass federal laws to protect women’s rights. We need to codify Roe v. Wade into law and fully fund Planned Parenthood. We must repeal the Hyde Amendment.
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) May 15, 2019
Booker’s pledge came one day after Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signed the Alabama Human Life Protection Act, which bans nearly all abortions without exception. Late Tuesday evening, Alabama’s Senate passed the measure, 25-6. It allows zero exemptions for cases of rape and incest, and reclassifies abortion as a Class A felony, punishable by up to 99 years in jail for doctors who perform the procedure.
Speaking Wednesday with MSNBC’s The Beat, Booker called the law an “assault” on human rights. “This is an assault on basic fundamental ideal that you can control your own body. We know from Alabama’s jail by Martin Luther King, he said that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. This is that case,” “I think we have an obligation to just think very fundamentally; does a woman have the right to control her body or do politicians have to dictate to her? Do you know how extreme this is? It says in the cases of rape and incest, that a woman, it is still illegal for a doctor to perform an abortion. So this is outrageous.”
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