The Biden administration has changed its tune on pro-abortion activists threatening Supreme Court Justices, reversing their passive stance on the issue from last week.
“@POTUS strongly believes in the Constitutional right to protest. But that should never include violence, threats, or vandalism,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Twitter Monday. “Judges perform an incredibly important function in our society, and they must be able to do their jobs without concern for their personal safety.
.@POTUS strongly believes in the Constitutional right to protest. But that should never include violence, threats, or vandalism. Judges perform an incredibly important function in our society, and they must be able to do their jobs without concern for their personal safety.
— Karine Jean-Pierre (@PressSec) May 9, 2022
But Psaki was seemingly less worried about the safety of the justices last week, side stepping an opportunity to condemn protests at the homes of the justices.
From Town Hall:
“These activists posted a map with the home addresses of the Supreme Court justices. Is that the kind of thing this president wants to help your side make their point?” Psaki was asked.
“I think the president’s view is that there’s a lot of passion, a lot of fear, a lot of sadness from many, many people across this country about what they saw in that leaked document,” she responded. “I don’t have an official U.S. government position on where people protest. I want it, we want it, of course, to be peaceful. And certainly, the President would want people’s privacy to be respected.”
Groups of pro-abortion activists protested outside the homes of Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and John Roberts following a leaked draft majority opinion that showed the nation’s high court was on the verge of overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
Many began to show concern for the safety of the justices amid the outrage, a concern that has mostly been ignored by Democrats who support Roe.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has praised protesters for showing their “righteous anger” at the potential ruling and called for “meaningful action” to “enshrine Roe v. Wade as the law of the land.”
“While we have seen and heard extraordinary anguish in our communities,” Pelosi said, “we have been moved by how so many have channeled their righteous anger into meaningful action: planning to march and mobilize to make their voices heard.
“Republicans have made clear that their goal will be to seek to criminalize abortion nationwide,” Pelosi said in a statement. “Republican state legislators across the country are already advancing extreme new laws, seeking to arrest doctors for offering reproductive care, ban abortion entirely with no exceptions, and even charge women with murder who exercise their right to choose.”
