Tipsheet

Karine Jean-Pierre Gets Roe Seriously Wrong

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  January 22, 2024 7:30 PM

Monday marks 51 years since the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the Roe v. Wade, though it was ultimately overturned in 2022 with the Dobbs v. Jackson decision. As Katie highlighted earlier, President Joe Biden put out a statement full of fearmongering that also called on Congress to take action by passing the Women's Health Protection Act (WHPA), although that would certainly do more than "restore" Roe, as the president claims. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also commemorated the day by sharing the statement over X, and by focusing on the part that got it oh so wrong.

As Jean-Pierre and other abortion advocates insist, abortion ought to be a constitutional right, with the press secretary claiming that the Court had "recognized a woman's constitutional right."

The Supreme Court in 1973 decided that legal abortion would be imposed on all 50 states, based on a penumbra, or "feeling" of what the 14th Amendment said about abortion, which is never actually mentioned in the Constitution. Its companion case of Doe v. Bolton also allowed for abortion through all nine months of pregnancy based on a purposefully vague "health" exception. Roe was upheld by the 1992 case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey. 

There's over 1,000 replies taking issue with Jean-Pierre's post, especially when it comes to her claims about the Court "recogniz[ing]" such a right. Perhaps nobody addressed it better than the Judicial Crisis Network's Carrie Severino, who offered one of the 100 quoted replies that dismantled Jean-Pierre's distorted claim about a right to abortion.

Referring to the Roe decision as "the most egregious judicial distortion of the Constitution in living memory" that had been "corrected," Severino also emphasized "[t]here was *never* a constitutional right to abortion."

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Jean-Pierre also took questions on the matter a few hours later during Monday's White House press briefing. She even repeated that problematic statement from the podium before she took questions, claiming "the aftermath has been devastating."

Additionally, Jean-Pierre posted her opening remarks warning of doom and gloom in the aftermath of Roe being overturned by the Dobbs decision. 

When taking questions, Jean-Pierre reverted back to the tactic she used leading up to the 2022 midterms, which is to cause confusion about the president's stance when it comes to gestational limits on abortion. 

During Monday's briefing, Fox News' Peter Doocy asked "how many weeks into a pregnancy does [Biden] think abortion should still be legal?" Not only did Jean-Pierre acknowledge that she's been asked the question before, she still claimed she and the president have "been very clear." Rather than give a number, though, she claimed "we want to see Roe become the law of the land." 

No matter how the Biden administration chooses to categorize the WHPA, such a law would actually expand Roe, by making abortion available on demand for any reason without legal limit in all 50 states. 

As she claimed she wanted "to be very clear here," Jean-Pierre offered that a "majority of Americans want to see their protections protected by their--by--by--by the folks who are here in Washington, D.C., in Congress, by this president and vice president." 

She sought to emphasize that the Biden administration was "standing with a majority of Americans," appearing to confuse what year the midterm elections took place before correcting herself. "They've been very clear," Jean-Pierre went on to claim about American voters, "we need to stand for freedoms to make sure women have the right to their own decisions, personal decisions, on their body, on their health care."

"That's where a majority of Americans are," Jean-Pierre repeated. "Guess what? Republican officials, they're not there. They're not with a majority of Americans, though the president's going to continue to stand with a majority of Americans on this."

Perhaps Jean-Pierre was not more forthcoming since polling shows that majorities Americans oppose legal abortion in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy. 

Despite how Jean-Pierre repeatedly claimed she was being "clear," another reporter expressed confusion. "It's still not clear to me, though, if he supports the late-term abortion restrictions that were included in Roe," he mentioned. 

The press secretary's response to this question involved more distortion of Roe. "Well, if it's in Roe, then that's what he wants to see," Jean-Pierre offered before adding "I'm just not going to get into it, whatever is in Roe." She then went on to describe Roe as "a constitutional law" and "what the president wants to see restored."

Another telling point about Jean-Pierre and the abortion movement as a whole is the refusal to recognize the unborn child whose life is tragically cut short when an abortion takes place.

Not only did Jean-Pierre not want to "get into" it when asked about the lack of rights for the unborn, she again rehashed the same talking points. "I've been very, very clear about this," she said as she packed up for the day, adding that the president supposedly standing with a majority of Americans is "what matters."

What Jean-Pierre and others leave out is that pro-lifers look to protect both the unborn child and the pregnant woman, as was on display with last Friday's annual March for Life. At the start of this 118th Congress, the Republican-controlled House passed legislation to protect babies born alive from abortion attempts and condemned violence against pro-life organizations. Just last week, the House also passed legislation supporting pregnant students and also protecting funding for pregnancy resource centers which help pregnant women and their children, including after they're born.