President Joe Biden said he would back killing the filibuster to pass federal abortion legislation and blasted the Supreme Court's 'outrageous' repealing of Roe v. Wade during a press conference in Madrid on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters at the end of a NATO summit in Madrid, Spain, he said the ruling was 'destabilizing' but insisted it had not overshadowed meetings with alliance leaders.
Biden also defended his qualifications to be the 'messenger' on abortion rights even as allies and critics on the left condemned him for not acting sooner.
And he said he would support a carve-out so that Democrats in Congress could pass laws to protect abortion rights, even without 60 votes in the Senate.
'The first and foremost thing we should do, is make it clear how outrageous this decision was and how much it impacts - not just on a woman's right to choose, which is a critical, critical piece - but on privacy generally,' Biden said.
'And so I'm going to be talking to the governors as to what actions they think I should be taking as well.'
He added that the 'most important thing' was his belief that the protections granted in Roe v. Wade should be codified into law.
'The way to do that is to make sure that Congress votes to do that,' the president said.
'And if the filibuster gets in the way, it's like voting rights, it should be we provide an exception for this.'
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