Illinois Republican Representative Mary Miller was harshly criticized after she called the reversal of Roe v. Wade a "victory for white life" during a speech in which she thanked former President Donald Trump at a rally in Mendon, Illinois over the weekend.
Miller's remarks came shortly after the United States Supreme Court published a ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark decision that once protected a person's right to choose reproductive health care without excessive government restriction.
She thanked Trump "on behalf of all the MAGA patriots in America," adding a "thank you for the historic victory for white life in the Supreme Court yesterday" to the cheers of the crowd.
You can hear her remarks in the video below.
\u201cMiller: President Trump\u2026 I want to thank you for the historic victory for white life in the Supreme Court yesterday\u201d— Acyn (@Acyn) 1656202722
While in office, Trump had the opportunity to appoint three conservative justices who had gone on record opposing abortion to the Supreme Court, raising concerns among Democrats that they would threaten the Roe v. Wade precedent.
While the largely conservative court ultimately voted to uphold abortion rights in June Medical Services, LLC v. Russo (2020), in which the Court ruled that a Louisiana state law placing hospital-admission requirements on abortion clinics doctors was unconstitutional, fears that Roe would ultimately fall were not unfounded.
Much of the debate surrounding the legality of abortion in the United States as of late has been informed at least in part by the current wave of Christian nationalist thought that advocates for White supremacy at all costs.
Meanwhile, prominent Republicans like former President Trump's ex-chief strategist Steve Bannon have pushed replacement theory, a conspiracy theory that states White European populations and their descendants are being demographically and culturally replaced with non-European peoples.
Bannon was criticized last year after he demanded people have more "Judeo-Christian" babies so these children could be "trained" in order to "save civilization."
Miller was swiftly criticized for her remarks.
\u201cthey\u2019re not even bothering to use dog whistles anymore everything is out in the open\u201d— Mac (@Mac) 1656272379
\u201cRepublicans aren\u2019t even trying to disguise their fascism and white supremacy anymore.\u201d— Nyla San! (@Nyla San!) 1656271088
\u201cEven if you were foolish enough to believe Rep Mary Miller accidentally slipped up, peep the crowd and former president\u2019s reaction. Just awful human beings.\u201d— Jemele Hill (@Jemele Hill) 1656242081
\u201cThey're not even trying to hide it anymore. This is not about political issues, it's about white supremacy.\u201d— Ptozer207 (@Ptozer207) 1656248773
\u201cMaybe she meant to say "right to life" instead of "white life." That's plausible.\nBut even under that interpretation, what a Freudian slip! And the most telling thing: Not only does she not correct it, Trump and the people behind don't even flinch, and then the crowd cheers.\u201d— Nicholas Grossman (@Nicholas Grossman) 1656250884
\u201cTheir inside voices are becoming their outside voices.\u201d— Patrick J Adams (@Patrick J Adams) 1656257442
\u201cAmerican fascism, if not quite here, then building\u201d— Nick Cohen (@Nick Cohen) 1656231440
\u201cMadeleine Albright warned before her death about the rising Fascism in the US. Never assume liberal democracy is the default, that progress won is in the bank and doesn't need constant forceful protection.\u201d— Jess Phillips MP (@Jess Phillips MP) 1656232194
\u201cIf everyone else listened to the POC trying to warn them about what MAGA really meant, you wouldn't be here. \n\nWe warned you!\u201d— Kay Vee (@Kay Vee) 1656225261
Later, Miller's spokesman claimed that Miller had misread her notes and should have said "right to life." However, Miller has made headlines in the past for espousing White supremacist thought.
In January 2021, mere days after she began her term in the House of Representatives, Miller courted controversy after she quoted German Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler—who orchestrated the systematic genocide of more than 11 million people including over six million Jews and millions of Romani, disabled, LGBTQ+ and critics of the Nazi regime—during a prepared speech to the conservative group Moms for America.
Miller who had referred to a remark Hitler once made that "Whoever has the youth has the future," later doubled down, saying her remarks had been intended to compare alleged youth indoctrination efforts by "left-wing radicals" to those of Hitler.
