Ahead of what would have been the 50th anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, DNC Chair Jaime Harrison and DNC Women’s Caucus Chair Lottie Shackelford released the following statement: 

“On what would’ve been the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we commemorate the day by rededicating ourselves to the fight for women’s reproductive freedom. Half a century after the landmark decision, a woman’s freedom to make decisions about her own body is devastatingly under attack now more than ever. 

“After the extreme Republican majority on the Supreme Court overturned nearly 50 years of precedent and opened the door for Republicans to push their extreme abortion bans across the country, Republicans responded by instituting state bans with no exceptions for rape or incest, threatening doctors with jail time for performing abortions, and trying to roll back access to contraception. And despite the American people loudly rejecting the Republicans’ extreme anti-choice agenda at the ballot box in the midterm elections, the MAGA House majority has already voted on multiple anti-abortion bills, while a national abortion ban has become the definitive litmus test for 2024 Republican presidential hopefuls.

“In the face of these extreme attacks, President Biden and Vice President Harris have taken decisive action to protect and expand choice. The Biden-Harris administration has finalized a federal rule to make abortion pills more available in pharmacies and taken executive action to increase privacy protections for patients and safeguard access to birth control. 

“As Democrats, we will always fight for reproductive freedom, from the courthouse to the statehouse and the White House. We will continue to call out Republicans for their extreme anti-choice agenda, and the American people will once again hold them accountable at the ballot box.”