A CONSERVATIVE MP appeared to retweet and then delete his retweet of America’s Republican Party celebrating the overturning of Roe v Wade amid the targeting of women’s rights.
Abortion clinics in at least eight US states stopped performing abortions and others began to close after the Supreme Court removed the constitutional right to the procedure.
States with trigger laws which included Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, South Dakota, Wisconsin and West Virginia stopped performing abortions after Friday’s decision.
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The court’s overturning of the landmark Roe v Wade ruling is likely to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states. Of these, 13 outlawed abortion instantly.
The ruling, unthinkable just a few years ago, was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court fortified by three appointees of former president Donald Trump.
Blackpool South MP Scott Benton seemed to signal his support for the move, retweeting the GOP on the subject.
The image posted by the Republicans included the text “LIFE WINS”. After screenshots were posted by social media users and criticism started rolling in, the retweet appeared to be deleted by Benton.
Conservative MP Scott Benton celebrates the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade. In 22 states, that means near-immediate abortion bans.
— Ash Sarkar (@AyoCaesar) June 24, 2022
There are men in our Parliament who’d take women’s rights back to the Victorian era if they could. pic.twitter.com/Z6BcdlNeec
Benton is a parliamentary private secretary (PPS) at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
In a recent debate on Dominic Raab’s Bill of Rights, the Blackpool MP said: “The residents of Blackpool were absolutely furious at the European Court’s move to block the first removal flight to Rwanda last week.
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“They desperately want that policy to work and will warmly welcome the measures outlined by the Deputy Prime Minister today.”
Trump has taken credit for the Supreme Court’s decision, calling it “the biggest WIN for LIFE in a generation”.
He said the rulings and others “were only made possible because I delivered everything as promised, including nominating and getting three highly respected and strong Constitutionalists confirmed to the United States Supreme Court. It was my great honour to do so!”
Three Trump appointees voted to scrap Roe v Wade: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
The decision is expected to disproportionately affect minority women who already face limited access to health care, according to statistics analysed by The Associated Press.
It also puts the court at odds with a majority of Americans who favoured preserving Roe, according to opinion polls.
Surveys conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research and others have shown a majority in favour of abortion being legal in all or most circumstances.
But many also support restrictions especially later in pregnancy. Surveys consistently show that about one in 10 Americans want abortion to be illegal in all cases.
The ruling came more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the court was prepared to take this momentous step.
Alito, in the final opinion issued on Friday, wrote that Roe and Planned Parenthood v Casey, the 1992 decision that reaffirmed the right to abortion, were wrong and had to be overturned.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that the Justice Department will protect providers and those seeking abortions in states where it is legal and “work with other arms of the federal government that seek to use their lawful authorities to protect and preserve access to reproductive care”.
In particular, Garland said the federal Food and Drug Administration had approved the use of Mifepristone for medication abortions.
More than 90% of abortions take place in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, and more than half are now done with pills, not surgery, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.
Benton was approached for comment.
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