House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) took the gloves off Sunday to blast the U.S. Supreme Court as “dangerous to families, to freedoms in our country.”
“Who would have ever suspected a creature like Donald Trump would become president, waving a list of judges he would appoint … getting the support of the far-right and appointing those anti-freedom justices to the court?” she asked.
Pelosi targeted the draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito gutting Roe v. Wade that was leaked earlier this month. But she also fears it marks the beginning of a wholesale dismantling of freedoms by the aggressively conservative court.
“Beware in terms of marriage equality, beware in terms of other aspects,” she warned in an interview CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“Understand this,” she added about Alito’s decision, which is not yet final. “This is not just about terminating a pregnancy. This is about contraception, family planning.”
The decision rocks a “place where freedom and the kitchen table, issues of America’s families, come together,” she added. “What are the decisions that a family makes. What about contraception for young people? It’s beyond a particular situation. It’s massive in terms of contraception, in vitro fertilization, a woman’s right to decide,” she said.
Pelosi said Republicans have stymied Democrats in efforts to pass a federal law to safeguard reproductive rights. She called on Democrats to mobilize and vote in midterm elections to help eradicate the damage by the conservative justices, including the three named by Trump: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
“The genius of our founders was to have a Constitution that enabled freedom to expand,” said Pelosi. “This is the first time the court has taken back a freedom that was defined by precedent and respect for privacy.”
In an interview Sunday on ABC News, Pelosi condemned the horrific fatal shooting of 10 people at a Buffalo supermarket Saturday. Almost all of the victims were Black. “Our hearts are so sad for the families affected by this,” she told George Stephanopoulos.
“Of course, we are trying to do something about gun violence,” Pelosi added, leaving unsaid the nearly insurmountable opposition to reeling in guns from the Republican Party.