Cotton Says ‘Time for Roe v Wade to Go’ After Trump Names Him as Potential Supreme Court Justice

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) speaks during a hearing in Washington on May 5, 2020. Andrew Harnik/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said he would like to see Roe v. Wade overturned shortly after he was included in President Donald Trump’s expanded list of potential future Supreme Court nominees.

“It’s time for Roe v. Wade to go,” Cotton wrote on Twitter.

The senator was referring to a Supreme Court ruling in 1973 that decided the U.S. Constitution includes the right to abortion. Justices said states could not regulate abortions in the first trimester but could implement restrictions on terminating unborn babies in the second and third trimesters.

Issues surrounding abortion have come to the forefront in recent years in some states, with officials saying they hope the court’s decision is revisited and overturned.

The last abortion-related ruling from the Supreme Court in June struck down a law that required abortionists to have hospital admitting privileges close to where the procedure took place.

Since then, federal judges in George and Tennessee blocked laws restricting abortion while an appeals court last month lifted a ruling that had blocked several restrictions in Arkansas.

Cotton said he was honored to be among the potential nominees to the nation’s highest court.

“I will always heed the call of service to our nation. The Supreme Court could use some more justices who understand the difference between applying the law and making the law, which the Court does when it invents a right to an abortion, infringes on religious freedom, and erodes the Second Amendment,” he said in a statement.

Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), and Mike Lee (R-Utah) were the other members of Congress on the expanded list.

Hawley said he had already told Trump he wasn’t interested.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) speaks during the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Hearings on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 10, 2020. Al Drago/AFP via Getty Images

“I appreciate the President’s confidence in listing me as a potential Supreme Court nominee. But as I told the President, Missourians elected me to fight for them in the Senate, and I have no interest in the high court. I look forward to confirming constitutional conservatives,” he wrote on Twitter.

Cruz also suggested he wasn’t interested, writing that he’s been blessed to represent Texas in the Senate “and I look forward to continuing to do so for many years to come.”

Lee has previously said he'd be interested in joining the Supreme Court.

Trump said in announcing the new additions that, if the court ever tilted left, justices would “erase the Second Amendment, silence political speech, require taxpayers to fund extreme late-term abortion.”

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has voiced support for widespread abortion, telling a debate crowd in March that he would, if elected, codify Roe v. Wade “because I think it is a woman’s right to choose.”

“I think it’s a woman’s opportunity to be able to make that decision. And in fact, I’ve gotten a 100 percent rating from NARAL as well,” he added, referring to NARAL Pro-Choice America, which opposes abortion restrictions.

NARAL’s website on Thursday featured a message about Trump’s expanded list, telling people: “Another four years of Trump judicial appointments would mean the end of reproductive freedom as we know it. We MUST fight back with everything we have.”