Mike Pence Celebrates End Of Roe v. Wade, Calls For Nationwide Abortion Ban

Former Vice President Mike Pence praised the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the landmark abortion rights case Roe v. Wade on Friday, claiming the high court “righted an historic wrong” with its ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Pence, who has staked his career on his extreme opposition to abortion rights, was one of the first prominent Republicans to celebrate Friday’s ruling, which also struck down the Roe-affirming decision Casey v. Planned Parenthood.

“By returning the question of abortion to the states and to the people, this Supreme Court has righted an historic wrong and reaffirmed the right of the American people to govern themselves at the state level in a manner consistent with their values and aspirations,” Pence said in a statement.

While Friday’s ruling will almost immediately ban or severely limit abortion procedures in at least 22 states, Pence pressed for even further action on a national scale.

“Now that Roe v. Wade has been consigned to the ash heap of history, a new arena in the cause of life has emerged, and it is incumbent on all who cherish the sanctity of life to resolve that we will take the defense of the unborn and the support for women in crisis pregnancy centers to every state in America,” Pence wrote. “Having been given this second chance for Life, we must not rest and must not relent until the sanctity of life is restored to the center of American law in every state in the land.”

While serving as former President Donald Trump’s second-in-command, Pence advocated for more conservative justices on the court. He openly criticized Chief Justice John Roberts as a “disappointment to conservatives” and urged Republican voters to turn out to the polls in the 2020 election in order to secure an even stronger conservative majority on the court.

Although Trump served just a single term, he still managed to appoint three right-leaning justices to the court: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. All three concurred with Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion in Dobbs, as did Clarence Thomas. (Roberts concurred with the ruling but did not join Alito’s opinion.)

More on the Supreme Court abortion ruling:

• Supreme Court strikes down Roe v. Wade, dismantling decades-old precedent

• Roe overturned: The fight begins

• Abortion is now illegal in these states

• Liberal justices dissent with “sorrow” for “millions of American women”

• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “We have to fill the streets”

• Clarence Thomas: Cases protecting gay marriage and contraception should be next

• Republicans make it clear they want to ban abortion nationwide

• Donald Trump praises SCOTUS decision

• West Coast states launch a plan to protect out-of-state abortion patients

• Here’s how the world is reacting to the end of Roe

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.