Hillary Clinton: Supreme Court Will Try to ‘Turn Back the Clock on Civil Rights and Gay Rights and Women’s Rights Beyond Abortion’

(CNSNews.com) – The Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade last week is “not necessarily the only effort that we’re going to see this court undertake to turn back the clock on civil rights and gay rights and women’s rights beyond abortion,” Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told “CBS Mornings” on Tuesday.

Clinton said she was “not surprised” by the high court’s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, “because I think that was the goal of packing the court with justices who are on the record for many years of being against women’s constitutional right to make decisions about our own bodies.”

“I was deeply sorry that it actually happened, but now that it has happened, I think everybody understands that this is not necessarily the only effort that we’re going to see this court undertake to turn back the clock on civil rights and gay rights and women’s rights beyond abortion,” she said.

“This is going to I hope wake up a lot of Americans. I don’t care what political party or religion you are. The question is who decides. Is the government going to be in your bedroom? Is the government going to be making these decisions? We’re only at the beginning of this terrible travesty that this court has inflicted on us,” the former secretary of state said.

When asked what she says to pro-life supporters who say they are protecting the rights of the unborn, Clinton said, “I say that that is predominantly a belief rooted in religion, which I respect, and that’s why in a pluralistic democracy like ours, the court in Roe V. Wade said the government is not going to make this decision.  

“If it is your personal belief based on whatever that there is no legitimate basis for abortion, even if you’re in the hospital and you’re bleeding out, even if you are told that you have cancer and chemotherapy is necessary, and therefore an abortion is necessary, no he — no matter what you get to make that decision,” she said.

“I might not agree with it, but you get to make that decision, but you and those who support your particular point of view cannot dictate that decision to every other woman, and for many years the abortion rate was going down. We were seeing I think greater responsibility especially with the use of contraception,” Clinton said.

“So what is it, what is their ultimate goal here if they begin to chip away at all these rights? It truly is to erase the progress that women have made from the last 150 years,” she added.
Clinton said that senators were misled by the justices in their confirmation hearings, “because they wanted to be misled.”

“They either knew or were blind to what the history of the people before them. Anyone who is surprised by this is not paying attention. So these people were selected for this purpose, and it was a 50-year campaign, and you have to give the other side lots of points for their relentlessness, their total commitment to getting what they want done, regardless of who’s hurt by it and regardless of who’s stripped of rights,” she said.

On the filibuster, Clinton said she’s been saying for quite some time that it should be eliminated “at the very least for constitutional questions like voting rights, like a woman’s constitutional rights to make decisions about her own body. So If you can’t lift it completely, lift it for those two things that have huge consequences for our country.” 

CBS News’s Gayle King asked the former first lady and senator whether there is any scenario where she might want to get back into politics.

CLINTON: No, but I miss it.

KING: There’s no scenario in 2024 that you would even remotely consider? 

CLINTON:  No. I can’t imagine it. I really can’t. 

KING: That’s not a no. 

CLINTON: But what I can imagine is staying as active and outspoken as I can, because I think our country is really on the precipice, Gayle. I think that we are looking at not only the erosion of these rights, throwing the door open to unfettered, unregulated gun access, but we’re also looking at dismantling the federal government, how it protects our air and our water and everything else that goes with it. 

Clinton said that she thinks democracy is at stake.

She also said that the Jan. 6 hearings “have been incredibly powerful,” and she understands that “a lot of people pay no attention, but history pays attention.”

“I hope the justice department is paying attention. I hope in these midterm elections candidates and Democratic Party pay attention, because you cannot let those who attack our capitol and those who urged them on to do so act with impunity. That’s what happens in dictatorships and authoritarian regimes,” Clinton said.

“I think it is important that people recognize if there were ever a time to vote and to vote literally for your rights and our future, it’s this midterm,” she added.

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