The Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade on Friday, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion. The decision, authored by Justice Samuel Alito, reversed 50 years of precedent to return the question of abortion rights back to the states.
The ruling has immediate impacts: 26 states are likely to move quickly or immediately to ban abortion; half of those states already have “trigger” laws set in place to ban it as soon as today. Experts worry that without the option of safe, legal abortions, women will die as a result of unsafe terminations or pregnancy complications.
The ruling also throws other fundamental rights into question. In a concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas explicitly called on the court to reconsider rulings on contraception, marriage equality, and the criminalization of same-sex relationships.
Far-right activists were ecstatic with the ruling. They immediately began to look forward to enacting the rest of their agenda, eager to implement a nationwide abortion ban, further Christian nationalism, and roll back LGBTQ rights and women’s rights.
Andrew Torba, the far-right Christian nationalist founder of Gab, posted a meme that read, “SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR ABORTIONS WHORES.” An image of Justice Brett Kavanaugh with red lasers coming out of his eyes accompanied it. Torba followed that misogynist celebration with this message: “The Christian takeover of our Christian country has begun.”
Known for his antisemitism, he quickly went on to identify what else he wanted to ban. “Next we need to ban the barbaric act of circumcision, which is also a Jewish sacrament that was imposed on our men outside of their will as mere babies,” Torba declared.
Far-right congressional candidate Laura Loomer—who has said that her white nationalist views will help her get elected to Congress—managed to tie her white nationalism and anti-LGBTQ bigotry to the overruling of Roe. “Forget about the race baiting ‘holiday’ of Juneteenth. Today should be a national holiday instead,” she wrote on Telegram. “And I can’t think of a better way to end the degeneracy of PRIDE month than by overturning Roe vs Wade.”
Rep. Paul Gosar—who asked former President Donald Trump for a pardon after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol—was eager to give Trump, who nominated three conservative justices to the Supreme Court, credit for overturning Roe. Gosar claimed “there is still so much more work to be done to return this country to God.”
“Let’s keep our momentum and push ever forward. For Him,” he tweeted, adding an emoji of a cross. He followed that tweet with this declaration: “We're just getting started. Welcome to the New Right. Welcome to America First.”
Gosar is friendly with the white nationalist America First movement.
Other far-right actors began fearmongering about abortion rights groups’ reactions to the ruling. After an extreme group calling itself Jane's Revenge vandalized anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy centers,” far-right actors painted the picture that riots and attacks on churches are inevitable. Other far-right activists fearmongered about “antifa”—conservatives’ shorthand for anti-fascist activists. (As the Intercept noted, it’s unclear who is behind Jane’s Revenge.)
While it's “not a non-zero threat,” DFRLab Resident Fellow Jared Holt described far-right messaging around potential riots as “capitalizing on one group to encourage widespread panic."
Among those painting this picture of chaos was Jack Posobiec, a far-right commentator and “Pizzagate” conspiracy theorist, whom the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as “known primarily for creating and amplifying viral disinformation campaigns.”
“Protect the churches!” Jack Posobiec posted on Telegram at 10:16 a.m. He spent the morning prior to that message posting photos of protests at the Supreme Court, and describing one individual there as an “Antifa pedophile.”
Prior to the decision, Posobiec flooded his social media feed with posts about a “Night of Rage.” He returned to that message while hawking MyPillows shortly after the decision in a bizarre attempt at trolling. “Hi libs! Mad that you can’t kill babies anymore? Don’t have a Night of Rage, have a Night of Slumber with MyPillow.com promocode Poso!”
Right-wing commentator Matt Walsh took up that same vein of attack. “It's a good thing the Supreme Court affirmed our right to conceal carry right before this ‘night of rage’ you guys are planning,” Walsh wrote.
White nationalist Nick Fuentes took to Telegram to spread this message as well. “DEFEND YOUR CHURCHES TONIGHT!” he wrote, echoing Posobiec. The previous day, he displayed both his male supremacism and his white nationalism in apparent reference to abortion, writing, “Women gave us original sin and White Genocide.”
Fuentes—who believes women in the United States should be treated like they are under the Taliban—shared a message from Tyler Russell that said today’s ruling was not enough. “Time to go further right, Then even further,” the message read. “We’re just getting started. Christian Nationalism is the future.”
“God Wins,” Fuentes wrote. “We are going to ban abortion and open up the flood gates for God’s grace and our inevitable plan will be completed.”
