Biden vows to ensure Roe v. Wade remains ‘law of the land’

“We don’t know exactly what she will do, although the expectation is that she may very well move to overrule Roe,” Biden said Monday during an NBC town hall. “The only responsible response to that would be to pass legislation making Roe the law of the land.”

The two-term vice president and the 36-year Delaware senator first vowed to codify Roe in 2019 after reversing his stance on the Hyde Amendment. That legislative measure bans federal funds from being used for abortions unless the procedure would save the mother’s life or the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest.

But Monday’s comments were his first after Trump named Barrett to the Supreme Court, his third nominee. And he repeated it in a tweet after he left the town hall.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham earlier Monday scheduled Barrett’s confirmation hearings to start Oct. 12. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals judge and Notre Dame Law School professor is expected to be pressed on her past statements on Obamacare and Roe.

Barrett reportedly signed a 2006 advertisement that called for the reversal of Roe, which it described as a “barbaric” decision and a “raw exercise of judicial power.” In other public remarks, she’s only alluded to the possibility of limiting abortions.

“I don’t think the core case — Roe‘s core holding that, you know, women have a right to an abortion — I don’t think that would change,” Barrett said in 2016 at Jacksonville University in Florida. “But I think the question of whether people can get very late-term abortions, how many restrictions can be put on clinics — I think that would change.”