Manchin ‘Trusted’ Gorsuch And Kavanaugh Not To Overturn Roe — Here’s How Key Lawmakers Reacted To Court’s Decision

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), who voted to confirm Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the court despite opposition from his party, said he was “alarmed they chose to reject the stability the ruling has provided” and that he had “trusted [them] when they testified under oath that they also believed Roe v. Wade was settled legal precedent.”

Sen. Susan Collins, a pro-abortion rights Republican who voted to confirm all of former President Donald Trump’s nominees to the court, said it had “abandoned a 50-year precedent at a time that the country is desperate for stability,” while Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who co-sponsored a bill with Collins to codify abortion protections, has not yet released a statement.

Progressive Democrats were outspoken in their protest of the decision, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) saying “Republican politicians have finally forced their unpopular agenda on the rest of America” and “these extremists will not have the final word,” while Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said “people will die because of this decision.”

Other Democrats were less outraged in their reactions, with Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the House majority whip, calling the decision “anti-climactic,” and saying “we all expected this,” and noting he will “have to read the decision to see exactly the extent to which we can move legislatively to respond to it” – a sign that the decision was business as usual.

Former Vice President Mike Pence – a longtime opponent of Roe – led a cheerful Republican response in the minutes after the ruling, saying, “Today, life won,” while Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the decision was “courageous and correct” and a “historic victory for the Constitution and for the most vulnerable in our society.”

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the court “achieved the GOP’s dark and extreme goal of ripping away women’s right to make their own reproductive health decisions.”

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) called out Justice Clarence Thomas – one of the six justices to vote in favor of overturning Roe – for his comments that Friday’s decision was “merely the beginning of a radical right-wing effort to roll back other rights, including the right to contraception.”

Former President Barack Obama said the decision “relegated the most intensely personal decision someone can make to the whims of politicians and idealogues,” while former First Lady Hillary Clinton said it “will live in infamy as a step backward for women’s rights and human rights.”