British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade a “backward step” on Sunday but said the U.S. remains a guarantor of freedom.
Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union” in Krun, Germany during the G7 summit, the conservative lawmaker told co-anchor Jake Tapper that he supports a woman’s right to have an abortion.
“I want to stress that this is not our court, it’s not our jurisdiction,” Johnson said. “So, in a sense, it’s for the United States, it’s not for the U.K. But the Roe v. Wade judgment, when it came out, was important psychologically for people around the world, and it spoke of the advancement of the rights of women, I think.”
“And I regret what seems to me to be a backward step,” he continued. “But I’m speaking as someone looking in from the outside.”
The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a Mississippi state law banning abortion at 15 weeks in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
A majority of justices also voted to overturn Roe, the landmark case that guaranteed abortion rights nationwide for nearly half a century, and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which upheld the abortion right guaranteed by Roe.
Johnson is slated to meet with President Biden and other leaders of the world’s wealthiest democracies at the G7 summit this week, which will be followed by a NATO summit in Spain.
When asked if the decision hurt the United States as a representative of rights and freedom, Johnson said he didn’t think that was the case, pointing to the country’s support of Ukraine.
“For me, it remains a shining city on the hill,” Johnson told Tapper. “And it’s an incredible guarantor of values, democracy, freedom around the world.”