If the Biden administration tries to preempt states from their abortion bans, that will be a "misreading" of the Supreme Court's ruling "and a misreading of the Constitution," Rep. Ben Cline commented to Newsmax on Tuesday.
"Very clearly, this is an issue for the states to decide," the Virginia Republican said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America," while discussing Health and Human Secretary Xavier Becerra's reaction to a call from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., to put Planned Parenthood clinics on the edges of national parks to expand access to abortion as states enact bans.
Monday, Caroline Kitchener of The Washington Post reported on Twitter that she had spoken with Warren, who suggested Planned Parenthood being able to "put up tents, have trained personnel – and be there to help people who need it" at the parks, as "it's time to declare a medical emergency."
Later in the day, Becerra told CNN that "there are a number of conversations on any number of options that can be out there," and that the administration is taking a "close look" at them.
"It's a problem of liberals misreading the court and its judgments and the Constitution itself," said Cline, in response. "The court said very clearly, this was an issue for the states to decide."
Meanwhile, Cline said he is elated by the court's decision, coming "just when you think that two branches of the government, the legislative and executive branches, couldn't get the Constitution more wrong."
The congressman also commented on calls from Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin to block most abortions in the commonwealth past 15 weeks of pregnancy, noting that the Virginia Senate is only controlled by Democrats with a one-vote majority.
"There's going to be a lot at stake in next year's elections for the state Senate," said Cline. "Right now, I think that there is at least one Democrat in the Senate who claims to be pro-life. So we'll see how that ends up working out in next year's session, but I think it is where it should be with the states at this point, not created out of thin air by a court in the 1970s in a misreading of the 14th Amendment."
The congressman also on Tuesday said he's concerned about the growing violence after the court's ruling in the Roe decision.
"We are seeing violence in my own district in Lynchburg, Virginia," said Cline. "A pregnancy crisis center was vandalized over the weekend just as a result of the ruling."
Meanwhile, there are primary elections in five states on Tuesday, and Cline said he believes inflation, not the abortion ruling nor the Jan. 6 select committee hearings, will loom the largest in voters' minds.
"That's what's affecting my constituents," he said. "That's what they're talking to me about at the grocery stores and the gas pumps."
However, the abortion issue is part of a growing "awakening on the part of conservatives that the Constitution is on the ballot," said Cline. "We want to have a conservative textualist reading of the Constitution into the future, so we need to continue to turnout at the polls."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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