NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Friday criticised the US Supreme Court's ruling that ended the right to abortion, saying when a nation is hopelessly divided, non-elected judges can impose their prejudiced opinions on the people and get away.
He also asserted that constitutional rights are not given by the court, they are birthrights, and the court cannot take away a right that it has not given. His remarks came after the US Supreme Court ended the right to abortion in a ruling that ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place in America for nearly 50 years.
The conservative-dominated US court overturned the landmark 1973 "Roe vs Wade" decision that enshrined a woman's right to an abortion, saying that individual states can now permit or restrict the procedure themselves.
"If you look hard, you will find tears rolling down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty. Today is a sad and deeply disappointing day for liberty, equality, privacy and dignity -- especially of women," Chidambaram said in a series of tweets.
"Can you imagine a woman bearing until full term and giving birth to an unwanted child; a child of a rapist; a child sowed by incest; a child which the mother cannot afford to bring into this world or cannot afford to feed or raise; and a child that may not get any love at all," he said.
When a nation is hopelessly divided, non-elected judges can impose their prejudiced opinions on the people and get away, Chidambaram asserted. "Constitutional rights are not 'given' by the Court, they are birthrights. The Court cannot 'take away' a right that it has not given," he said.