Democrats plot legislative response to protect abortion rights after Supreme Court decision

With Congress set to return from its Independence Day recess to a political landscape rocked by the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Democrats plan to make abortion a top priority in their busy legislative agenda.

In the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health, five justices – three appointed by former President Donald Trump – ruled that elected representatives may make abortion laws, including complete bans of the practice. Republicans rejoiced while Democrats vowed to fight what they said is a half-century backslide on women's rights. 

"Today is one of the darkest days our country has ever seen," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said. "Millions upon millions of American women are having their rights taken from them by five unelected Justices on the extremist MAGA court."

"The Supreme Court, in effect, corrected an error when in 1973, the court simply found something in the Constitution that was not there," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said of the case. "What this decision does is simply return this very sensitive issue to the people's representatives."