'Dark Day For Our Nation': San Diego Leaders React To Abortion Ruling

SAN DIEGO, CA — San Diego County leaders reacted Friday with alarm and despair to the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.

“This is a dark day for our nation,” San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said in a statement. “The Supreme Court has failed in its core duty to provide equal justice under the law. I am outraged and horrified — but undeterred. I pledge to do everything within my power to preserve reproductive freedom.”

“Government mandated pregnancy is now law in states around the country. But we will not despair,” wrote Rep. Scott Peters, a Democrat who represents San Diego, Poway, Coronado and more in Congress. “The votes of six justices determined to turn our country into a theocracy can be overwhelmed by the votes of millions of Americans asserting their constitutional power.”

President Joe Biden echoed the sentiment that Americans can change the outcome of the ruling through legislative action. “This fall, Roe is on the ballot,” he said, adding that he will “do all in my power to protect a woman’s right in states where they face the consequences of today’s decision.”

Many Democrats have called for legislation codifying abortion rights into law, but it is unlikely they would have the votes necessary to pass it anytime soon.

It’s clear which way current representatives from San Diego County would vote. Rep. Mike Levin, a Democrat who represents the coastal North County and southern Orange County, posted a video of himself protesting in front of the Supreme Court Friday.

“This decision is devastating. The lives of women everywhere are now at risk because of right-wing justices forced on the American people by Mitch McConnell, Trump, and their allies,” Levin said. “The American people must now vote like your most basic rights are at stake, because they are.”

Rep. Sara Jacobs, a Democrat who represents the area around Chula Vista, La Mesa, El Cajon and Lemon Grove, was also in Washington Friday and called the decision “one of the most destructive, regressive, and shameful decisions made by the Supreme Court in our nation’s history.”

The congresswoman, who at 33 is the youngest member of California’s congressional delegation, said that “as one one of the few women of reproductive age in Congress, this attempt to strip people of their bodily autonomy is personal.”

Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, who represents a large swath of the East County, was one of the few county leaders to applaud the decision.

“Today is a great day for the cause and the principle of life," Issa said in a statement. "A clear majority of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States appropriately upheld its core purpose in our structure of self-governance: To discharge their duties faithfully and impartially under the Constitution. ... I will always stand for life. And I will always support and defend our Constitution."

Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest organized a news conference at 11 a.m. Friday. The organization said in a statement that it shared in “our communities’ and patients’ sadness, anger, and fear about what this decision means for the short-term, and for generations to come” and affirmed that it will “continue to be here to provide care to all, regardless of where they may be traveling from.”

A candlelight vigil to protest the ruling will take place at 7 p.m. at San Diego’s Waterfront Park.

RELATED:

• Roe v. Wade Overturned: What It Means In CA
• 'Attack On American Freedom': CA Leaders React To Abortion Ruling