Biden Criticises Abortion Bans and Threatens Privacy
Biden Criticises Abortion Bans and Threatens Privacy
A year after Roe v. Wade was reversed by the Supreme Court, the president sought to rally supporters in the hopes that Democrats will use the issue to their advantage in the next elections.
In the year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Republican-led states have enacted new restrictions on abortion. President Biden criticised these restrictions on Friday and warned that if Democrats do not win next year’s elections, the right to privacy, which has been the cornerstone of other rights like same-sex marriage and access to birth control, could be next to be threatened.
At an abortion rights rally on Saturday, Vice President Biden lamented the “devastating effects” of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organisation decision, which eliminated a national right to abortion for women. He said that women had been denied access to basic healthcare and mentioned that some prominent Republicans are now pushing for a national ban on the procedure rather than being content to leave the matter up to the states as they had previously advocated.
“They’re not stopping here,” declared Mr. Biden, who was present at the event alongside Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, as well as his wife, Jill Biden. “This election is about freedom on the ballot, make no mistake about that.”
The nation’s top pro-abortion organisations, Emily’s List, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and NARAL Pro-Choice America, gave their support to the president. Even though the endorsement wasn’t particularly surprising, the early timing highlighted the importance that Democrats attribute to abortion rights in the upcoming race.
Polls indicate that following the Dobbs ruling, support for legalised abortion has increased. Democrats contend that it was crucial to their avoidance of a Republican wave during the 2018 midterm elections — “you all showed up and beat the hell out of them,” as Vice President Biden phrased it — and may be equally important to their chances of keeping the White House and winning back the House in 2019. Republicans disagree among themselves on how much to stress this topic since some believe it will harm them in a general election. However, several progressive activists have privately voiced their displeasure that Mr. Biden has not previously given it more of a public priority.
Mr. Biden has struggled with the subject of abortion for a very long time, and as his opinions have evolved over time, he has often referenced his Catholic faith. He argued that the Roe decision by the Supreme Court went “too far” when he was still a young senator. He later voted in favour of a constitutional amendment allowing states to individually overturn the decision before changing his mind. Until the 2020 election, when he altered his views in response to criticism from liberals in his party, he supported the so-called Hyde amendment, which forbade the use of federal funds for abortion, including through Medicaid.
Ms. Harris, on the other hand, has blatantly entered the fight for abortion rights ever since Roe was overturned, and has reportedly emerged as the administration’s most ardent and persuasive advocate. The president of Emily’s List, Laphonza Butler, described Mr. Biden’s staff as “the most pro-choice administration we’ve ever seen” during the gathering on Friday, but she saved her most gushing praise for Ms. Harris.
The DNC helped organise the event on Friday as part of a campaign by the Biden campaign to spread awareness on the anniversary of the Dobbs decision. Dr. Biden convened a discussion earlier this week with women from states with restrictions on abortion to underscore the repercussions even for individuals who do not want to end a pregnancy. Ms. Harris will speak about abortion rights in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Saturday.
On Capitol Hill on Friday, Mr. Biden’s supporters raised the matter as well. Ayanna S. Pressley of Massachusetts is the leader of the House Democrats, who have sponsored legislation to guarantee a legal right to abortion and miscarriage care, protect patients and providers from prosecution, and mandate insurance coverage to cover abortion treatment. The bill was intended to send a message to supporters but has no chance of passing the Republican-controlled House.
In an effort to paint Republicans as extremists outside the abortion argument, Mr. Biden pushed to broaden the discussion to other privacy-related issues, as he has done over the past year. In reaction to the Dobbs ruling, the White House stated on Friday that the president was directing federal agencies to explore into measures to guarantee and increase access to birth control as his third executive action.
He urged his followers to “think about it, think about it, think about the thought that I had to do that. “I realise I’m 198 years old, but put the jokes aside and consider that. Never in a million years did I imagine that I would be issuing an executive order defending the right to contraception.
He bragged that he had done more than any of his predecessors to advance women into leadership roles. He pointed out that he is the first president to have a majority-woman cabinet, that he appointed Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, and that he had appointed more Black women to federal appeals courts than all of the previous presidents put together. He also made Ms. Harris the first woman to hold the office of vice president.
Look at how far we’ve come, Mr. Biden added. We must not allow them to advance us backward.
