In response to the United States Supreme Court today overturning Roe v. Wade, DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, DSCC Chair Gary Peters, DCCC Chair Sean Patrick Maloney, DGA Chair Roy Cooper, DAGA Co-Chairs Aaron Ford and Kathy Jennings, DLCC Chair Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and Democratic Mayors Association President Levar M. Stoney issued the following joint statement:

“Democrats believe women in America have the right to make their own health care decisions, and that politicians should never get in the way of these private decisions. Today’s Supreme Court ruling is the culmination of a coordinated Republican effort to attack this fundamental freedom – but Democrats will fight back with every tool we can, and voters of every political persuasion will hold the GOP accountable in 2022.

“Make no mistake: The Republican Party will not stop at overturning Roe. The 2022 election will now determine whether new, cruel, and punishing restrictions will be put in place on women and families. With Republicans in power, states could make abortion illegal without exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother, and women and doctors could be charged with a crime if they have or perform an abortion.

“The stakes of November’s elections could not be higher – and voters will make their voices heard by standing with Democrats up and down the ballot.”

https://democrats.org/news/joint-statement-from-dnc-dscc-dccc-dga-daga-dlcc-dma%EF%BF%BCon-scotus-overturning-roe-v-wade/

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Friday that the Pentagon is working to ensure that members of the military, their families and its civilian employees will still have access to "reproductive health care" after the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Why it matters: The Defense Department currently does not have a policy to accommodate service members or employees who are seeking an abortion but are stationed in a state that has outlawed abortion, Politico reports.

Federal law currently allows military medical facilities to provide abortions only in cases of rape, incest or if a woman’s life is in danger, while the military's health program is allowed to cover abortions at private facilities for those same reasons only.

What they're saying: "Nothing is more important to me or to this Department than the health and well-being of our Service members, the civilian workforce and DOD families," Austin said in a statement on Friday.

(CNN)Three children are dead and their mother is facing murder charges after authorities received a 911 call of a woman allegedly trying to stab her children during a house fire in Georgia, officials said.

Deputies with the Paulding County Sheriff's Office responded to a domestic disturbance Friday evening at a home in the city of Rockmart, roughly 40 miles from Atlanta, according to a news release from the sheriff's office.

Deputies and firefighters entered the home to rescue the occupants and extinguished the fire, police said.

Paulding County detectives and fire investigators, agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and investigators from the state fire marshal's office were working at the scene, the news release stated.

Far-right candidates are surging in House races across the map: Republican leaders increasingly fear that a red wave will wash in a raft of conspiracy theorists and extremists.

Why it matters: The establishment grows ever weaker. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy — on the doorstep of the speaker’s office — can expect to be saddled with new members who have zero loyalty or predictability.

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What we're hearing: In cycles past, leadership has attempted to get involved in some races to stiff-arm candidates they find problematic.
* But this time, House GOP leadership is highly sensitive to the political downsides of interfering: Republicans need these candidates to take back the majority and make McCarthy speaker.
* McCarthy has been careful not to alienate them, hoping his hands-off approach will help earn their trust and foster goodwill down the line.

Yes, but: Once in office, it will be hard for McCarthy to control his far-right freshmen — just as he's faced difficulty wrangling Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), who see themselves as "untouchable."

(CNN)Dartmouth College announced Tuesday it was eliminating student loans for undergraduates and replacing them with "expanded scholarship grants," the university said in a news release.

The initiative is part of the Ivy League school's "The Call to Lead" leadership campaign, and will begin starting June 23 for the summer 2022 term, the release said. The announcement also means Dartmouth's class of 2022 will be the first class to enter the school and benefit from this program, the release said.

"Thanks to this extraordinary investment by our community, students can prepare for lives of impact with fewer constraints," Dartmouth President Philip J. Hanlon said in a statement.

Dartmouth's announcement comes amid the ongoing debate about student loan debt in the US, where 43 million people are waiting to find out if President Joe Biden will wipe away all or part of their federal student loan debt. In April, after facing months of pressure from other Democrats to cancel $50,000 per borrower, Biden said he was considering some broad student loan forgiveness, though a smaller amount.

The proto-authoritarian Supreme Court, which is only right-wing because corporate Democrat Hillary Clinton ran the worst presidential campaign in modern history

we have a chance to beat back rightwing forces in these Democratic primaries to save our rights before it’s too late.

CEDAR RAPIDS — Police are investigating how an argument Friday evening between a pickup truck driver and demonstrators protesting the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling against abortion rights led to a collision between the truck and a pedestrian, who was injured in the altercation.

Police interviewed the injured protester, who was later taken by a car to the hospital to be evaluated, and the driver of the truck.

But no arrests were announced and police said they were scouring the area for surveillance video cameras that may have captured the incident. Videos posted to social media showed a truck with its window rolled down with what appears to be the driver exchanging words with several protesters around the truck, including some crossing the street as the vehicle continued to move forward.

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"What happened today was an act of pure violence,“ said Linn County Supervisor Stacey Walker, who rushed to help women who were in front of the truck. ”Young women who were protesting the recent Supreme Court decision that threatens their right to health care and bodily autonomy were targeted. Many of them were physically hurt and many will be afflicted by the mental trauma of this event. It is my hope that the individual responsible for this act will be brought to justice, and that the basic human rights of all people can be honored in this country."