Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-3rd, said Tuesday that the Supreme Court’s decision in 1973 to legalize abortions was the court’s “worst decision” since it decided in 1857 that blacks could not become U.S. citizens.

On the 40th anniversary of the abortion ruling, Stutzman said in a statement: “More than 55 million innocent children have been killed since Roe v. Wade, the worst Supreme Court decision since Dred Scott. If President Obama really believes his admonition that ‘a great nation must care for the vulnerable,’ he will stop this senseless slaughter of innocents.”

Stutzman is a co-sponsor of legislation that would deny federal funds to family planning agencies that also perform abortions. Current law already prevents federal funding for abortions.

In a statement issued Tuesday by the White House, Obama called Roe v. Wade a “historic commitment to protect the health and reproductive freedom of women.”