“As their Sheriff, it is absolutely none of my business. I will not persecute Texas women or anyone else pursuing those same rights," wrote Sheriff Javier Salazar.
“Shame on the Supreme Court and the bureaucrats in Washington D.C. and Austin who are attempting to impose their own supposed morals on others.”
That's what Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar wrote when he took to Facebook to share his views about the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the landmark 1973 ruling, Roe v. Wade.
“They will not use my badge or the color of my office to do so. My job is chasing predators, rapists, and human traffickers, not someone exercising a right,” Salazar wrote. “If it’s truly about protecting children, how about starting with the ones in our schools?”
On June 24, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right for Americans to get an abortion. According to a 6-3 majority of the justices, the Constitution did not contain any text regarding the right to end a pregnancy.
Associate Justice Samuel Alito wrote the opinion for the court, “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start.”
A Texas judge blocked state officials from enforcing the abortion ban, according to CBS News. This allows for clinics to temporarily continue providing abortion services but only for those under six weeks pregnant.
According to a report by CBS News, the decision to reverse Roe v. Wade and ongoing restrictions on access to abortions have resulted in an increased number of Americans seeking abortion care.
Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, the founder of Aid Access, a telemedicine service providing access to abortion pills to Americans, told CBS News that since Roe v. Wade was repealed, the number of emails asking about abortion care increased from 600–700 to 4,000 per day.
Currently stationed in Austria, Gomperts founded Aid Access in 2018 and has operated in countries where abortion is illegal or restricted, according to CBS News.
Gomperts told CBS News that she is currently working to approve a medication abortion pill as a contraceptive through clinical trials in light of the shifts in the United States’ regulatory landscape.
“In the end, what matters is that women that don’t want to be pregnant, that they are not pregnant,” Gomperts told CBS News.
As for Salazar, a father of two young women, he hopes to uphold his daughters’ rights.
“As their Dad I will defend my daughters’ ability to do what they feel is right with their own bodies and to love whomever they choose. As their Dad, I have no control over their adult bodies,” Salazar wrote. “As their Sheriff, it is absolutely none of my business. I will not persecute Texas women or anyone else pursuing those same rights.”
