GOP senator on Texas abortion law: Supreme Court will ‘swat it away’ when ‘it comes to them in an appropriate manner’

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said on Sunday that he believes the Supreme Court will “swat” away a law in Texas that effectively banned abortions after six weeks of pregnancy because the high court’s ruling last week was based on standing and not on the law’s constitutionality. 

“The ruling on SCOTUS was that the plaintiffs did not have standing. It had nothing to do with the constitutionality of Roe v. Wade,” Cassidy told ABC “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos.

Cassidy claimed that attention on the ruling and criticism of the bill distracted from other issues such as the U.S. military’s chaotic exit from Afghanistan.

“People are using it to gin up their base to distract from the disastrous policies in Afghanistan and maybe for fundraising appeals. I wish we would focus on issues as opposed to theater,” Cassidy told Stephanopoulos. 

“It was about if they had standing, nothing to do with constitutionality. I think we should move on to other issues,” Cassidy said.

He went on to say the Supreme Court’s ruling that keeps the Texas law in place was not an “assault” on Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in the United States, and deflected from answering a question about whether the Supreme Court would eventually overturn the law on the federal level.

“I think the Supreme Court will swat it away once it comes to them in an appropriate manner. If it is as terrible as people say it is, it will be destroyed by the Supreme Court. But to act like this is an assault upon Roe v. Wade is, again, something the president is doing I think to distract from his other issues. And it is clearly not an assault upon the — by the way, I’m pro-life,” Cassidy said. “But, just to say, the facts are this is about standing, about nothing else. And the Supreme Court will decide how to affect standing before all these other things play out.” 

“If it is as terrible as people say it is, it will be destroyed by the Supreme Court,” GOP @SenBillCassidy tells @GStephanopoulos about the new Texas abortion law. https://t.co/PdXq8zVVKi pic.twitter.com/QbKFc2Bjsx

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) September 5, 2021

The legislation, which was signed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), went into effect last week.