Missouri AG, who authorized the state's Roe v. Wade 'trigger' ban on abortions, says DOJ had 'third world' response to protests against Supreme Court

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt outside wearing a black suit with a red tie. — Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt speaks during a news conference on April 26, 2022.
REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt said the DOJ's lack of response to the protests surrounding abortion rights is "third world."
Protests erupted nationwide after the Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe v. Wade on Friday.
The DOJ "has no interest in condemning" the "night of rage" that followed, Schmitt said.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt on Friday characterized the Justice Department's response to protests surrounding the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade as "third world."

Speaking to Fox News Host Tucker Carlson, Schmitt said the Justice Department "has no interest in condemning" the "'night of rage'" that followed the Court's decision to roll back Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark Supreme Court decision that made abortion a constitutional right nationwide.

"We've seen an assassination attempt of a Supreme Court justice. This is going to continue," Schmitt said. "The Justice Department is way more interested in siccing the FBI on parents who show up to school board meetings under the Patriot Act than arresting folks intimidating Supreme Court justices. This is out of the banana third-world republic."

—Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) June 25, 2022

The Justice Department condemned the Court's decision, saying on Friday that it's a "devastating blow to reproductive freedom in the United States."

Following the decision, protests erupted nationwide, and Schmitt in his interview with Carlson suggested that the Justice Department should curb them.

Schmitt's comments come on the heels of Missouri on Friday becoming the first state to make abortion illegal following the decision. In the hours after the decision was made public, Gov. Mike Parson signed legislation enacting the ban on abortions in the state.

Since May, abortion-rights advocates have feared that the Supreme Court would strike down Roe v. Wade. The fears began when Politico published a leaked draft opinion in which Associate Justice Samuel Alito called the decision "egregiously wrong from the start."

Abortion, however, remained legal in the United States until the court handed down the final verdict. But the draft itself was enough to put reproductive rights activists and doctors who perform abortions on edge.

By overturning Roe, the Supreme Court has put the question of the legality of abortion in the hands of individual state legislatures and has essentially made it illegal in at least 22 states to obtain an abortion. There are expected to be added restrictions in several others.

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