Secretary of State Antony Blinken sent a message to State Department employees saying he has launched a review of how all employees can access abortions going forward, according to an internal e-mail obtained by Breitbart News.
“Team, I wanted to be sure you all saw the public statement I issued a moment ago. I know many of you may be concerned, saddened, or angry in light of today’s news. I have instructed Under Secretary [John] Bass to manage a review of how we can make sure that all of our employees can access the reproductive healthcare they need going forward,” he said in the message.
“We will be in touch in the weeks ahead,” he wrote.
The messaged, issued after a Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, echoed one coming from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who vowed to ensure that troops have access to abortions.
A State Department employee who provided the message to Breitbart News and wished to stay anonymous said, “Seems strange for the State Department to weigh in on Roe v. Wade, and assume all State Department employees were ‘concerned, saddened, or angry.'”
Breitbart News reached out to the State Department press secretary on Saturday but did not receive a response before publishing.
Blinken’s public statement issued earlier said Supreme Court ruling had raised “understandable questions and concerns across the world.”
“As Secretary of State, I usually avoid commenting on Supreme Court rulings. But today’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade has raised understandable questions and concerns across the world and within our workforce,” he said.
“So let me be clear: under this Administration, the State Department will remain fully committed to helping provide access to reproductive health services and advancing reproductive rights around the world. And this Department will do everything possible to ensure that all our employees have access to reproductive health services, wherever they live,” he added. “We will not waver from this commitment.”
Western European leaders criticized the Supreme Court’s decision, which hands the issue of abortion rights to the states.
As Breitbart News’s Kurt Zindulka reported, British Prime Minster Boris Johnson called the ruling a “big step backwards.”
“I have always believed in a woman’s right to choose and I stick to that view; that’s why the UK has the laws that it does,” Johnson added.
Embattled French President Emmanuel Macron issued a statement saying: “Abortion is a fundamental right for all women. It must be protected. I wish to express my solidarity with the women whose liberties are being undermined by the Supreme Court of the United States.”
Ironically, France has stricter abortion laws than some states in America, setting a limit of 14 weeks to end a pregnancy.
Mette Frederiksen, prime minister in Denmark in 2019, commented: “My heart weeps for the girls and women of the USA. A huge set back. The right to a free abortion is one of the most fundamental rights there is. We must never compromise the unrestricted right of women to decide over their own bodies and future.”
Pedro Sanchez, the socialist prime minster of Spain, which is set to allow 16- and 17-year-old girls to seek abortions without parental consent, said: “We cannot take any rights for granted. Social achievements are always at risk of going backwards and their defence has to be our day to day. Women must be able to decide freely about their lives.”
The Prime Minister of Belgium, Alexander De Croo, said that he is “very concerned about implications of [the US Supreme Court] decision on Roe v Wade and the signal it sends to the world. Banning abortion never leads to fewer abortions, only to more unsafe abortions.
“Belgium will continue to work with other countries to advance [“Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights”] everywhere.”
The Belgian government has a history of abortion activism, such as in September of last year when the government announced that it would pay for women in Poland to travel to Belgium to have abortions after the conservative government of Poland heavily restricted the ability to end pregnancies.
Even before the Supreme Court officially ruled to strike down Roe v. Wade, the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, passed a resolution preemptively condemning the move earlier this month. After a draft of the ruling was controversially leaked to the press, Eurocrats wrote to “condemn the backsliding in women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights worldwide including in the U.S. and some EU countries, calling for safe access to abortion.”
The EU parliament went on to demand that President Joe Biden “ensure access to safe and legal abortion,” despite the president having no legal authority to supersede a decision from the Supreme Court.
Kurt Zindulka contributed to this report.
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