Celebrities react to Roe v. Wade being overturned: 'I'm absolutely terrified'

The Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 ruling of Roe v. Wade on Friday.

For nearly 50 years, Roe guaranteed a person's constitutional right to seek an abortion. By overturning Roe v. Wade, SCOTUS has handed power to individual states, allowing state legislatures to determine out their own abortion laws. According to CNBC, nearly half of the country is now expected to outlaw or severely restrict abortion.

Speaking from the White House hours after the ruling was announced, President Joe Biden said it was a "sad day for the country." The decision has sparked other American political leaders and celebrities to share public responses.

In a post shared on her Twitter page, Taylor Swift expressed her disappointment in the Supreme Court's decision. "I’m absolutely terrified that this is where we are — that after so many decades of people fighting for women’s rights to their own bodies, today’s decision has stripped us of that."

Swift, who became more vocal with her political opinions starting with the 2018 Tennessee Senate race, retweeted former First Lady Michelle Obama's statement, in she described feeling "heartbroken" over the ruling.

"This is what our mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers lived through, and now here we are again," Obama wrote. "This horrifying decision will have devastating consequences, and it must be a wake-up call, especially to the young people who will bear its burden.”

Former president Barack Obama issued his own statement, calling the decision an attack on "essential freedoms."

Joining Swift were other celebrity entertainers voicing their reactions using strong emotion.

“And so it goes ... Gutted,” actor Viola Davis tweeted in reaction to Friday’s ruling. “Now more than ever we have to use our voice and power!” Actor Keke Palmer wrote on Twitter that she was “past disgusted” with her country.

In a series of tweets and retweets, "Girls5Eva" actor and activist Busy Philips, who testified before Congress about abortion rights in 2019, also shared her frustration. "It doesn’t end here," she wrote.

Actor Bette Midler wrote of SCOTUS on Twitter, "How dare they?" Midler called the Supreme Court "tone-deaf to the will and even the actual needs of the American people." The percentage of Americans who identify as pro-choice is 55 percent, the highest percentage since 1995, according to a Gallup poll released in 2022.

In a series of tweets, Jonathan Van Ness of "Queer Eye" called the decision "heartbreaking" and wrote, "This is about controlling bodies and keeping people in systemic poverty for generations."

Comedian and writer Seth MacFarlane, who explored abortion rights in his show "Family Guy," expressed his dismay over the Supreme Court's ruling.

"Not too long ago, this would have been dystopian sci-fi. But the legacy of the 2016 election and the indelible mark of the GOP is printed here in black and white. How much farther this will go once again depends on American voters. Blame extremism or apathy, but this is America," he said in a Twitter post.

Lynda Carter, known for playing Wonder Woman, invoked a future in which reproductive freedom is "enshrined in federal law."

Pop star Mariah Carey posted about talking to her 11-year-old daughter about the decision.

"It is truly unfathomable and disheartening to have to try to explain to my 11 year old daughter why we live in a world where women's rights are disintegrating in front of our eyes," she wrote.

Individuals on the other side of the political aisle are expressing their support of the Supreme Court's recent ruling.

Television host and former New York State judge and prosecutor,Jeanine Pirro spoke in favor of the decision in a Tweet. "The Supreme Court did not take away the so-called 'right' to abortion," Pirro wrote. "They left it up to the states and the people to decide. Isn’t that democracy?"

Earlier this year Pirro garnered attention for incorrectly claiming that there are 63 million abortions a year in the U.S.

Donald Trump Jr., the eldest child of former President Donald Trump, wrote on Twitter he was “proud” of his father, who was in office from 2017 to 2021, for “what he has accomplished today.”

Trump told Fox News the ruling “will work out for everybody.”

“This is following the Constitution, and giving rights back when they should have been given long ago,” Trump told Fox News. “This brings everything back to the states where it has always belonged.”