Biden slams Republicans on abortion rights a year after Roe repeal

WASHINGTON - US President Joe Biden on Friday marked the one-year anniversary of a

Supreme Court ruling overturning the right to an abortion

by telling a rally of abortion-rights supporters that Republicans will regret their efforts to limit reproductive rights.

“The majority wrote, ‘Women are not without an electoral or political power.’ You ain’t seen nothing yet,” he said of the Supreme Court’s landmark Dobbs decision. “Make no mistake: This election is about freedom on the ballot once again.”

He made the remarks at a rally as he picked up three endorsements from reproductive rights groups: Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Naral Pro-Choice America and Emily’s List. The endorsements were expected, and Democrats predict the issue will galvanise voters in 2024 when

Mr Biden runs for re-election.

On Friday, he signed an executive order designed to protect and expand access to contraception, a right he has said also may come under assault from his political opponents.

Over the past year, Mr Biden has signed multiple executive orders aimed at shoring up access to abortion rights, including

the ability to access abortion pills

or travel out of states that have banned the procedures.

Vice-President Kamala Harris, who also attended the rally, has taken a key role on the issue, travelling around the country to meet state legislators, local leaders and advocates.

Just a mile away from the abortion rights rally, Republican presidential candidates including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former vice-president Mike Pence praised restrictions on such rights in remarks to a deeply religious crowd at the Faith & Freedom Coalition event.

Mr DeSantis, who is polling in second place, more than 30 points behind former president Donald Trump, said Florida had delivered on “promoting a culture of life” with his so-called “heartbeat Bill”, which goes much further than the 15-week ban embraced by moderate Republicans.

“It was the right thing to do – don’t let anyone tell you it wasn’t,” Mr DeSantis told the Road to Majority Conference, a gathering of 3,000 evangelical conservatives in Washington.

The remark was a veiled swipe at Trump, who views the religious right as key to his 2016 presidential win and future White House ambitions, but has criticised the Florida law as “too harsh”.

Mr Pence, who is running a distant third in the Republican primary, told the conference that abortion law in the United States was “more aligned with China and North Korea” than Western nations.

“So I want to say from my heart, every Republican candidate for president should support a ban on abortion before 15 weeks as a minimum nationwide standard,” he said.

Mr Biden’s campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said the organising power of the three abortion rights groups was essential to Democrats’ strong performance in the 2022 midterms and will be again.

“Maga Republicans promising a national abortion ban makes the stakes for re-electing President Biden and Vice-President Harris all the more important,” she said in a statement, referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

Republican National Committee chairman Ronna McDaniel issued a statement calling Mr Biden’s views on the issue “completely out of touch with Americans”.

Ms McDaniel said: “Republicans must go on the offence on this issue, expose their Democrat opponents’ extremism, and continue to fight for commonsense pro-life protections that we know Americans firmly support.”

Mr Biden has also received early endorsements from labour unions and environmental groups, consolidating support, discouraging challengers from within his own party, building coalitions and starting fund-raising and advertising drives around issues that are key to getting Democratic voters to the polls in 2024.

The June 24, 2022, Dobbs decision struck down the 1972 Roe v Wade ruling that had largely protected abortion rights in the US.

In last November’s congressional elections,

Republicans narrowly won control of the House of Representatives

but fell short of expectations. Democrats retained narrow control of the Senate. Strategists in both parties have attributed Democratic strength in 2022 in part to higher support from people who back abortion rights.

Some Republicans have called on party leaders to soften their stance on the issue in a bid to win over swing voters in competitive elections.

Some 64 per cent of respondents in a Reuters/Ipsos poll in May said they were less likely to support a presidential candidate who backed laws severely restricting abortion, compared with 36 per cent who said they were more likely to back such a candidate.

The biggest expansions of abortion rights over the past year occurred in states, including Michigan and Minnesota, where Democrats control both the legislature and the governor’s office. REUTERS, AFP