Biden to deliver remarks on Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade

President Biden on Friday will deliver remarks on the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, according to the White House.

The remarks, from the White House, will be at 12:30 p.m. Biden has yet to comment about the Supreme Court decision, and this speech will likely be his first reaction to the landmark ruling.

The Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday eliminates the nearly 50-year-old constitutional right to abortion and hands states the authority to drastically limit or ban the procedure. The president said earlier this month that he would consider some kind of executive action on abortion rights if Roe were to be overturned, though his powers are severely limited.

He has responded to the leaked Supreme Court draft decision earlier this year by urging voters to vote Republicans out of office come November so that Democrats can pass federal legislation codifying Roe v. Wade.

Biden’s speech comes as the president is prepared to leave for Germany on Saturday for the Group of Seven summit.

The White House has been quietly preparing for the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade and preparations intensified after a leaked draft opinion published by Politico in early May showed that the conservative majority on the court was poised to overturn Roe. But the White House resisted laying out plans until after the ruling was issued.

The decision, announced by a majority of conservative justices, upholds Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, which directly clashed with Roe’s requirement that states permit abortion up to the point of fetal viability, around 24 weeks. It is expected to ignite a political firestorm and lead to a patchwork of state laws, including in 13 states that have so-called trigger laws that will take effective immediately.