At one point during a press conference in Washington, DC, last week, officials with the Biden administration's Department of Justice discussed bills before state legislatures that would ban or limit abortion. First, Attorney General Merrick Garland (pictured above):
Garland: "As you know, the states are just back in session. They are passing laws. We are evaluating them as a continuing matter …. On the day Roe was overturned, I said the Justice Department would use every tool at its disposal to protect the rights of Americans to their reproductive freedoms – and that is what we have done. That is what we will continue to do."
Deputy Attorney General Vanita Gupta agreed:
Gupta: "We've obviously been very active in monitoring what's happening in the states and locally. And given that most state legislatures are now coming back into session, we'll be continuing to do so and looking at any laws that may get passed that infringe on federal protection."
AFN turned to Mat Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, who said the Biden administration apparently doesn't remember – or doesn't care – that the U.S. Supreme Court turned abortion laws back to the states.
"The battle is now on the state level, and the federal government has no business interfering with the individual state laws that are protecting life," Staver offers. "This is an outrageous, lawless action; an intimidation tactic by the Biden administration. But it's not surprising: this is the most lawless administration that I've ever experienced."
And he agrees that the comments by Garland and Gupta just might be designed to scare some states out of the idea of passing laws to save the lives of preborn babies.
Mary Szoch, who heads the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, similarly interprets the AG's remarks, saying Garland is "attempting to usurp the authority of pro-life states [and] is encouraging abortionists to continue exploiting women and killing children."
