The White House on Saturday called Indiana’s near-total ban on abortion “devastating” and demanded that Congress act immediately to restore nationwide protections for the procedure in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Indiana on Friday became the first state in the nation to approve abortion restrictions since the Supreme Court’s June ruling that removed constitutional protections on abortion, as the Republican governor quickly signed a near-total ban on the procedure shortly after lawmakers approved it.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called Indiana’s decision “another radical step by Republican legislators to take away women’s reproductive rights and freedom, and put personal health care decisions in the hands of politicians rather than women and their doctors.