Yahoo Movies James Corden Voices ‘Disgust and Anger’ at Supreme Court for Overturning Roe v. Wade
“The Late Late Show” host James Corden has voiced his “utter disgust and anger” at the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a reversal that has effectively dissolved the federal protection of abortion rights that has existed since 1973. States will now be able to individually decide upon abortion rights, with many expected to ban them.
Standing alone in front of the Houses of Parliament in London, the seat of British politics, Corden delivered an almost three-minute long monologue about the decision in the pre-recorded segment, which aired at the start of “The Late Late Show” on Monday night in the U.S. (the show will air one day behind in the U.K. on Sky Comedy).
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Corden, who has three young children with his wife Julia Carey, is taping “The Late Late Show” from his hometown of London this week.
Referring to the building behind him, Corden said: “Behind me, this is one of my favourite buildings in London, it’s the Houses of Parliament. It was here in 1967 that David Steel, a Member of Parliament, brought in a bill which legalized abortion in the U.K. Now, if that was ever to change, it would take at least 326 elected officials to agree to such a thing. It would then take another 400 appointees in the House of Lords to vote on that bill before it could ever become law. So that’s nearly 800 people would all have to agree before the fundamental rights of half the population would be endangered in the United Kingdom.”
“For the past eight years, I’ve been living, working and raising my young family in America,” Corden continued. “It’s a place I love. But you don’t need to live in the United States, or even have an American child as I do, to feel utter disgust and anger at the news from the Supreme Court, where six politically appointed judges can make a decision that ends the constitutional right to abortion across America. A woman’s right to choose what happens to her own body wiped out in a moment in the land of the American Dream, the land of the free, a country which prides itself on the protection of an individual’s liberties.”
“We move instantly back to a dark age, where a court has imposed the minority political view on a country for decades to come with a decision that endangers millions upon millions of women and their families. I’m struggling to get my head around any of this. To say that I’m outraged and devastated would be an understatement. It’s incomprehensible that in 2022 we should even have to say out loud that women should be entitled to control their own lives and bodies, let alone live in a country that won’t allow it. If only the American leaders on the right would care and fight as much for the rights of women as they do their guns. Now this week, our shows here in London, they’re going to be full of laughter, full of fun and joy, but please know that doesn’t minimise my devastation, upset and fear at this heart wrenching and frightening news.”
Watch his speech below:
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