Gloria Steinem Reacts to SCOTUS Roe v. Wade Draft

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: So, what is your initial reaction to the leak of this draft?

GLORIA STEINEM, CO-FOUNDER, WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER: It’s useful that it was leaked, I think, in order to have a view of what could happen. But it doesn’t change the fundamental fact that we as individual Americans are going to make decisions over our own physical selves. And as long as a fetus is dependent upon the heart and vessels and systems of someone else, then that someone has a right to make that decision. Of course women were not mentioned in the — or this was not mentioned in the Constitution, because women weren’t mentioned in the Constitution. But the principle of democracy is a very precious one. And it upholds the right for men and women to make decisions over our own physical beings.

AMANPOUR: So you have just answered Carrie Severino’s point. And I guess one takes that point from you, that women were not actually represented or mentioned in the Constitution. Now let me ask you about the other question that everybody’s sort of building this around, that it goes from the Supreme Court and from a federal law protection to the states. You heard what I asked Carrie Severino about that. What is your view and opinion how that will manifest itself if it gets to every state level, given the fact that the majority of Americans, nearly 70 percent, do not want to see Roe vs. Wade overturned?

STEINEM: I fear that the majority of Americans are not paying attention to their state legislatures, and who is in their state legislatures. So, often, there are more representatives of special interests than they — than are known by the average voter. They probably — we, in general, probably have a much better view of Congress and even of the Supreme Court. But the important thing is that we all understand that we have a right to make decisions over our own physical selves. And no one has the right to tell us what to do. And that is the majority everywhere. That is going to prevail in the end. I’m old enough to remember, before there were any real abortion rights, nonetheless, about one in three American women had had an abortion at some time in her life, even when it was maybe not legal. So there is just is such a thing as natural law. And natural law says we get the right to make decisions over our own physical beings.