Speaking at a press conference the end of the NATO summit in Madrid, President Joe Biden said that the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade is “destabilizing,” and he called for a change to the Senate’s filibuster rules to codify the right to an abortion and the right to privacy.
Despite his comments about the Supreme Court, Biden insisted that the United States “is better positioned to lead the world than we ever have been.”
In his remarks, Biden said that the high court’s behavior is “absolutely outrageous” and expressed concerns about the future of the right to privacy.
“One thing that has been destabilizing is the outrageous behavior of the Supreme Court of United States in overruling not only Roe v. Wade, but essentially challenging the right to privacy,” the president said, adding: “I could understand why the American people are frustrated because of what the Supreme Court did.”
"We have to codify Roe v. Wade into law," Biden said. "The way to do that is to make sure the Congress votes to do that. And if the filibuster gets in the way, it's like voting rights. We should be requiring an exception for this, requiring an exception to the filibuster for this action to deal with the Supreme Court decision."
One expert said that such a move would be a "shortsighted" one that would "likely backfire."
"While this may help Biden with Democrats, it is not likely to help in the long run and may even backfire," said Lara Brown, director of the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management. "The Democrats' desire to end the use of the filibuster on judicial appointments is how they ended up losing Roe vs. Wade to begin with."
Brown referenced then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's decision in 2013 to change the Senate's filibuster rules to confirm federal judges below the Supreme Court's level. When Republicans retook the Senate and President Donald Trump took office and nominated Neil Gorsuch to replace Antonin Scalia in 2017, then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell changed the filibuster rules for Supreme Court justices.
"Mitch McConnell then used that precedent to do it for Supreme Court confirmations and that is why they eventually ended up with Trump's conservatives all getting on the Court," Brown said.
"It is a rather shortsighted tactic that will likely backfire in far worse ways, such as allowing the GOP to pass a nationwide abortion ban if they garner a simple Senate majority, which former Vice President Mike Pence has already said they should aim for," she added.
"I feel extremely strongly that I'm going to do everything in my power, which I legally can do in terms of executive orders, as well as push the Congress and the public," Biden pledged.
Biden dismissed the notion that fellow world leaders might perceive that the U.S. is heading in the wrong direction.
“They do not think that,” Biden said. “You haven’t found one person, one world leader to say America is going backwards. America is better positioned to lead the world than we ever have been.”
Biden was speaking to reporters at the conclusion of a five-day foreign trip to huddle with NATO allies in Madrid and the leaders of the Group of Seven advanced democratic economies in the Bavarian Alps, which came as the nation was still grappling with the fallout from Friday’s Supreme Court decision.
The three-day summit included the Biden administration announcing plans to permanently bolster the U.S. military presence in Europe, an agreement between Turkey, Finland and Sweden to pave the way for the accession of Nordic nations into NATO, and the alliance updating its strategic concept reflect that China’s “coercive policies” are a challenge the Western bloc’s interests.
“I think we can all agree that this has been a historic NATO Summit,” Biden said, adding: “This summit was about strengthening our alliance, meeting the challenges of our world as it is today, and the threats we’re going to face in the future.”
“The last time NATO drafted a new mission statement was 12 years,” the president said. “At that time, it characterized Russia as a partner, and it didn’t even mention China. The world has changed a great deal since then, and NATO is changing as well. At this summit, we rallied our alliances to meet both the direct threats of Russia poses to Europe and the systemic challenges that China poses to a rules-based world order.”
Biden said that the alliance’s unity in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shows that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “getting exactly what he did not want.”
“At every step of this trip, we set down a marker of unity, determination and deep capabilities of the democratic nations of the world to do what need to be done,” the president said. “Putin thought he could break the transatlantic alliance. He tried to weaken us. He expected our resolve to fracture. But he’s getting exactly what he did not want.”
"He wanted the Finlandization of NATO. He got the NATOization of Finland,” Biden continued, referencing Finland and Sweden joining the alliance. “We’re more united than ever. And with the addition to Finland and Sweden, we’ll be stronger than ever.”
The president also said that the alliance is working to address food insecurity and a rise in prices on food and fuel caused in large part by Russia’s invasion.
“We tasked our teams to work on the details of the price cap on Russian oil, to drive down Putin’s revenues without hurting Americans and others at the gas pump” Biden said. “We’ll seek to use the funds from the tariffs on Russian goods to help Ukraine rebuild. We’ve committed more than $ 4.5 billion — more than half of that from the United States — to address food insecurity, and the immediate crisis caused by the Russian war.”
Biden pledged that the U.S. and the NATO alliance are prepared to “support Ukraine as long as it takes” and said the invasion has already had devastating effect on Russia, citing the country defaulting on its debts for the first time in more than a century and other economic impacts.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.