Former President Donald Trump called on Saturday the reversal of Roe v. Wade—a ruling decided partly by justices he appointed—“the answer to the prayers of millions.”
“We are today the party of life, and we are the party of everyone,” said the former president at his first rally after the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 ruling a day earlier, which means a federal constitutional right to abortion will be no longer granted.
Speaking at the “Save America” rally in Mendon, Illinois on June 25 as he campaigned for Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.), Trump called the reversal “a victory for the rule of law and above all a victory for life.”
“To the generations of Americans in the pro-life movement, as well as countless constitutional conservatives, your boundless love, sacrifice, and devotion, has finally been rewarded in full,” Trump said. “Congratulations.”
“This breakthrough is the answer to the prayers of millions and millions of people,” the former president told the crowd. “That’s the way it should have been many many years ago, and that’s the way it is now.”
Trump had vowed during the 2016 presidential debate that the overturning of the landmark decision legalizing abortion “will happen automatically” if he is elected.
Six years later, the 45th U.S. president announced to have delivered what he promised, including successfully nominating and appointing a total of three of what he called as “highly respected and strong” constitutionalists, which largely shifted the Supreme Court’s ideological skew by forging a new 6–3 conservative–liberal majority.
In Friday’s ruling, all three appointees—Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett—sided with the pro-life majority opinion against the 1973 Roe decision.
“Thank you, Trump!” rally attendees chanted in response at the Saturday event.
Thirteen states are expected to automatically outlaw abortion in the wake of the ruling, with a post-Roe trigger law in place, while some GOP-controlled states such as Florida are pursuing stricter limits to abortion.
By Rita Li
