Trump challenges Biden claim Roe v. Wade is on the ballot this year
Trump, Biden spar over Supreme Court vacancy during first presidential debate in Cleveland.
President Trump said Tuesday night there’s “nothing happening” in the Supreme Court with Roe v. Wade, and it isn’t on the ballot with the latest Supreme Court vacancy.
"Roe v. Wade. That's also at stake right now," Joe Biden said during the presidential debate, arguing Judge Amy Coney Barrett should not be confirmed to fill the seat vacated after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before the election. He said abortion rights granted by Roe v. Wade were “also on the ballot.”
“Why is it on the ballot? It’s not on the ballot,” Trump retorted. "There's nothing happening there.”
“You don't know what her views are,” Trump said of Barrett.
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On Sunday, Trump told Fox and Friends Weekend that if Barrett were confirmed by the Senate, it was “certainly possible” that the 6-3 conservative majority would rule on a “life issue.” “It’s certainly possible. And maybe they do it in a different way. Maybe they’d give it back to the states. You just don’t know what’s going to happen.”
‘“She is certainly conservative in her views, in her rulings, and we’ll have to see how that all works out, but I think it will work out,” the president said of his Supreme Court nominee.
Trump in 2016 promised to overturn Roe v. Wade in a presidential debate.
"That will happen automatically, in my opinion, because I am putting pro-life justices on the court," Trump said. "I will say this: It will go back to the states, and the states will then make a determination."
In 2017 when Barrett was confirmed to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she assumed Barrett would be a “no vote” on Roe v. Wade.
“There would be no opportunity for me to be a no vote on Roe,” Barrett responded. “And I would faithfully apply all Supreme Court precedent.”
"It's never appropriate for a judge to impose that judge's personal convictions, whether they arise from faith or anywhere else, on the law,” she added.
Barrett, while a Notre Dame law professor in 2016, was asked about ways a future Supreme Court might potentially allow states to further restrict abortion.
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"I think 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. 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," Barrett said during an appearance at Jacksonville University in Florida.
Still, Democrats have sounded the alarm on Barrett’s nomination and how it could play out in the abortion debate, particularly noting her devout Catholic faith.
Planned Parenthood President Alexis McGill Johnson said that Barrett expresses “hostility” toward reproductive rights.
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“Barrett's history of hostility toward reproductive health and rights, expanded health care access, and more demonstrate that she will put Justice Ginsburg's long record of ensuring that everyone receives equal justice under the law at risk," she said.
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