President Joe Biden has reacted to the US Supreme Court's ruling to overturn the historic Roe v. Wade decision.
As reported by CNN, Friday's ruling means that there is no longer a federal constitutional right to an abortion.
Justices voted 5-4 in favor of the decision - a decision that will have huge consequences on women's reproductive health across the country.
In the original 1973 Roe decision, the court ruled that the Constitution protected a woman's right to an abortion before the time at which a fetus would be viable outside the womb (usually around 24 weeks).
Now that the ruling has been overturned, each state will be able to set its own abortion rights independently unless Congress intervenes.
As reported by Huffington Post, the POTUS has today responded to the news, stating that the US Supreme Court is "taking America back 150 years".
"Today, the Supreme Court expressly took away a constitutional right from the American people that it had already recognized," said Biden, who is a longtime vocal supporter of abortion rights. "It didn’t limit it. They simply took it away. That’s never been done to a right so important to so many Americans."
Biden compared the ruling to state laws criminalizing abortion from the 1800s, adding: "The court is literally taking America back 150 years."
"This fall, Roe is on the ballot," Biden continued. "Personal freedoms are on the ballot. The right to privacy, liberty, equality – they’re all on the ballot."
"I believe Roe v. Wade was the correct decision," Biden said.
The 79-year-old president also pledged to protect any woman who needs to travel to another state in order to obtain an abortion.
"If any state or local official, high or low, tries to interfere with a woman's exercise of her basic right to travel, I will do everything in my power to fight that deeply unAmerican attack," he said.
Biden added that he would be directing the Department of Health and Human Services to make abortion pills "available to the fullest extent possible."
Justice Samuel Alito wrote in his majority opinion today: "Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division."