Democrats move to defend same-sex marriage after Supreme Court’s anti-abortion ruling

Congressional Democrats launched a push to protect same-sex marriage after the Supreme Court overturned the right to abortion and cast doubt on its own landmark decision allowing marriage equality for the LGBTQ community.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) urged lawmakers on Monday to act without delay to enact the right to same-sex marriage nationwide in the face of likely right-wing efforts to convince the conservative court to revoke it.

House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) (J. Scott Applewhite/)

“We cannot let our guard down or the rights and freedoms that we have come to cherish will vanish into a cloud of radical ideology and dubious legal reasoning,” said Nadler, chair of the House Judiciary Committee.

Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, ending federal right to legal abortion in U.S.

The new Respect for Marriage bill would explicitly permit same-sex and interracial marriage nationwide. It would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which banned same-sex marriage.

Several House Democrats co-sponsored the measure in the House, where a vote is expected by the end of the week. It is unclear if any GOP lawmakers will break ranks to support the measure.

Same-sex marriage cake toppers are displayed on a shelf at Fantastico on December 5, 2017 in San Francisco, California. (Justin Sullivan/)

The picture is murkier in the evenly divided Senate, where just one Republican, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), has so far endorsed the measure.

Many Republicans have put same-sex marriage in their crosshairs after the conservative majority Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.

Justice Samuel Alito said the ruling involved only the medical procedure, writing: “Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.”

But conservative Justice Clarence Thomas called on his colleagues to reconsider cases that allowed same-sex marriage, gay sex and contraception.

The court’s three most liberal members warn in their dissent that the ruling could be used to challenge other personal freedoms: “Either the mass of the majority’s opinion is hypocrisy, or additional constitutional rights are under threat. It is one or the other.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called the same-sex marriage case “clearly wrong.”

“Marriage was always an issue that was left to the states,” Cruz said on his YouTube channel.