Backlash after Republican congresswoman calls Roe v Wade repeal a ‘victory for white life’

A US congresswoman has called the overturn of Roe v Wade a “victory for white life” while praising the former president Donald Trump for his role.

Mary Miller, a Republican representative from Illinois, made the controversial comments at a “Save America” rally on Saturday where she shared the stage with the former president.

“President Trump, on behalf of all the Maga patriots in America, I want to thank you for the historic victory for white life in the Supreme Court yesterday,” Ms Miller said on stage, drawing cheers from the crowd of Trump supporters.

Her comments soon drew anger and outrage from people online who said it appeared to betray a white supremacist ideology.

However, as her comments received an immediate backlash, her spokesperson was quick to deny that she meant to refer to “white life” in her speech and said it was “a mix-up of words”.

“You can clearly see in the video... she’s looking at her papers and looking at her speech,” Ms Miller’s spokesperson Isaiah Wartman told the Associated Press.

Ms Miller, who is running for re-election in the state’s newly redrawn 15th Congressional District against Republican Rodney Davis, has been endorsed by Mr Trump, who continues to exert his influence over the Republican party.

Mr Trump himself has called the overturn of Roe v Wade verdict a “decision” made by “God”, in an interview with Fox News where he was asked whether he played a role in the repeal.

During his term in office, Mr Trump appointed three conservative judges: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.

All three judges joined the majority opinion issued on Friday that struck down the Roe v Wade verdict, the landmark 1973 decision that legalised abortion and afforded a constitutional right to the procedure.

Once again at the rally, Mr Trump claimed credit for the Supreme Court’s bombshell ruling, noting that in 2016, he promised to appoint judges who opposed abortion rights.

“Yesterday the court handed down a victory for the Constitution, a victory for the rule of law, and above all, a victory for life,” he told the crowd, which broke into a chant of “Thank you Trump!”

The overturning of the verdict has made abortion illegal in 13 US states. The move will have a disproportionate impact on people of colour.

The freshman congresswoman, who was among those who voted to overturn the results of the 2020 election, previously came under criticism for quoting Adolf Hitler.

“Hitler was right on one thing. He said, ‘Whoever has the youth has the future,”’ Ms Miller said in a speech last year, according to video posted by WCIA-TV. She later apologised after Democrats in Illinois called for her resignation.

Additional reporting by agencies