Biden denounces abortion bans and warns privacy is the next step

President Biden on Friday denounced new restrictions on abortion imposed in Republican-led states in the year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, warning that the right to privacy, which has been the basis for other rights such as same-sex marriage and intercourse, contraception , could then be jeopardized if the Democrats fail to win next year’s election.

Marking the anniversary of Saturday’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision to abolish a national right to abortion for women, Mr. Biden condemned its “devastating consequences”. leading Republicans, not content to leave the matter to the states as they have long advocated, are now pushing for a national ban on the procedure.

“They don’t stop here,” said Mr. Biden, who was joined at the rally by his wife, Jill Biden, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff. “Make no mistake, this election is about freedom to vote.”

The president garnered the endorsement of the nation’s largest abortion rights groups, Emily’s List, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and NARAL Pro-Choice America. While the approval came as hardly a surprise, the early timing underscored the role Democrats believe abortion rights will play in next year’s election.

Polls show that support for legalized abortion has risen since the Dobbs decision. Democrats claim it helped them avoid a Republican wave during last year’s midterm elections — “you all showed up and blew the hell out of them,” as Mr. Biden put it — and it could be critical to getting the White House to hold and retake the House. next year. Republicans disagree about how much to emphasize the issue, and some fear it will only hurt them in a general election. But some progressive activists have privately expressed frustration that Mr Biden has not made it a public priority until now.

Abortion has long been an uncomfortable issue for Mr Biden, who has cited his Catholic faith as his views have changed over the years. As a young senator, he declared that the Supreme Court had gone “too far” in the Roe decision and later voted for a constitutional amendment that would allow states to quash the ruling individually before they reverse themselves. He supported the so-called Hyde Amendment banning the use of federal funds for abortion, including through Medicaid, until the 2020 campaign, when he changed his mind under pressure from liberals in his party.

In contrast, Ms. Harris has unabashedly joined the fight for abortion rights since Roe was overturned, making her arguably the government’s most impassioned and effective voice on the issue. At Friday’s event, Laphonza Butler, president of Emily’s List, praised Mr Biden’s team as “the most pro-choice administration we’ve ever seen”, but saved her most effusive words for Ms Harris.

Friday’s meeting, hosted with the Democratic National Committee, was part of a series of messages from the Biden team around the anniversary of the Dobbs ruling. Earlier this week, Dr. Biden organized a session with women from states that have imposed restrictions on abortion to emphasize the consequences, even for those who do not wish to terminate a pregnancy. On Saturday, Ms. Harris will give a speech on abortion rights in Charlotte, NC

Mr Biden’s allies on Capitol Hill also drew attention to the issue on Friday. House Democrats led by Representative Ayanna S. Pressley of Massachusetts introduced legislation to mandate insurance coverage that includes abortion care, protect patients and providers from criminal prosecution, and affirm a legal right to abortion and miscarriage care. The bill has no chance of passing the Republican-controlled House, but was intended as a signal to supporters.

As he has done over the past year, Mr. Biden sought to expand the debate to other privacy-related issues, ideological grounds where he feels more comfortable as he cast Republicans as extremists beyond the issue of abortion. The White House announced Friday that in its third executive action in response to the Dobbs decision, it directed federal agencies to look for ways to ensure and expand access to contraception.

“The idea that I had to do that – I mean, no, really, think about it, think about it,” he told supporters. “I know I’m 198 years old, but kidding aside, think about that. I never thought I would sign an executive order to protect the right to contraceptives.”

He boasted that he had done more to put women in positions of power than any of his predecessors. In addition to making Ms. Harris the first woman to serve as vice president, noting that he is the first president to have a cabinet with a majority of women, he pointed to his nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first black woman in the Supreme Court and said he installed more black women in federal appellate courts than all previous presidents combined.

“Look, we’ve made so much progress,” Mr Biden said. “We can’t let ourselves be taken backwards.”