Michelle Obama urges abortion rights supporters to ‘double down’ ahead of Roe v. Wade ruling

Former first lady Michelle Obama urged her Instagram followers to “double down” on working to protect abortion rights in a post Thursday as the Supreme Court gets closer to ruling on an abortion rights case that could overturn Roe v. Wade. 

“So we’ve got to get work today. We’ve got to press our elected leaders at every level to pull every lever they can to protect the right to safe, legal abortion — right now,” Obama wrote, urging voters to back political candidates who support abortion rights.

Her post comes about a month after a draft Supreme Court majority opinion on Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban leaked to Politico, revealing the justices are poised to overturn Roe.

Chief Justice John Roberts confirmed the draft was authentic but said it did not necessarily reflect the final views of the justices. 

Former President Obama and the former first lady released a joint statement after the leak criticizing the opinion, saying it would “relegate the most intensely personal decision someone can make to the whims of politicians and ideologues.” 

In her Instagram post, Obama said a decision to overturn Roe would be the “culmination” of a decades-long effort to oppose abortion rights. She said those who have pushed for overturning Roe over the years have worked consistently through Republican and Democratic presidencies and successful and unsuccessful elections to achieve their goal. 

“And if we want to shift the tide, we can’t afford to get cynical or throw our hands up and walk away,” she said. “We have to double down, get even more organized, and join the activists who’ve been doing this work away from the spotlight for so long.”