MANASSAS, Va. — President Biden is campaigning for reelection as the nation’s most powerful protector of abortion rights, but he has stopped short of a full-throated call for abortion on demand as White House officials duck questions about his support of restrictions such as those common in other Western nations.
On Tuesday, Mr. Biden held his first campaign event with Vice President Kamala Harris, first lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff. He underscored the importance that Democrats are placing on abortion this year.
At the rally, Mr. Biden made an impassioned call for codifying Roe v. Wade to legalize abortion nationwide and slammed states that have adopted laws restricting access to abortion. He warned supporters that former President Donald Trump, the likely Republican nominee, and congressional Republicans “are hell-bent on going further” by banning abortion nationwide.
“As long as I have the power of the presidency, know this: If Congress passes a national abortion ban, I will veto it,” Mr. Biden said. “We need the protections of Roe v. Wade in every state. We can once again make it the law of the land. Give me a Democratic House of Representatives, give me a bigger Democratic Senate.”
Repeated interruptions by pro-Palestinian demonstrators prompted Mr. Biden to tell his audience, “I’m sorry it’s taking so long.”
Mr. Biden and his surrogates have stopped short of calling for abortion on demand despite support for no limits on abortions by some on the political left. The president also tries to occupy a nebulous gray area where his administration will not say what limits he would support.
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“I believe Roe v. Wade was right,” Mr. Biden sat at the White House on Monday. “I’m not supporting … abortion on demand.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was less clear when asked how many weeks into a pregnancy women should be allowed to have an abortion.
“We want to see the protections in Roe. We want to see Roe become the law of the land. That’s what the president wants to see. That’s what the president believes in,” she responded without giving a specific time frame.
Mr. Biden has tried to explain away his vagueness by citing his Catholic faith. He told a crowd over the summer that, as a practicing Catholic, he is “not big on abortion.”
Indeed, Mr. Biden opposed federal funding of abortion during most of his three-decade career in the Senate. He reversed his position in 2019 as he prepared to run for president. He attributed the change to his new view that abortion is a health care rights issue.
Most polls show Americans are firmly in the middle ground when it comes to abortion. A Gallup poll released during the summer found that 47% of respondents favored expansive rights that would keep abortion legal in all or most cases, and 49% favored restrictive rights that would keep abortion legal in only a few or no cases.
The same poll found that most Americans (69%) believe abortion should be legal in the first trimester. That support drops to 37% in the second trimester and 22% in the third trimester.
An overwhelming 70% said abortion should be illegal in the third trimester.
The U.S. has some of the least restrictive abortion laws among Western countries.
In Germany, abortion is illegal and punishable by up to three years in prison unless the pregnancy poses a health risk to the woman or is a result of rape or incest. Abortions also are limited to within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
Under Italian law, all women are eligible to request an abortion during the first 90 days of pregnancy for health, economic, social or familial reasons. For a legal abortion, a woman must obtain approval from a doctor.
France expanded the time limit on abortions from 12 weeks to 14 weeks in 2022.
In Europe, 29 countries have 12-week limits on abortion.
South American countries have stronger restrictions. Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Ecuador are among the few countries in the world where abortion is allowed only in cases of rape, incest or endangerment to the mother’s life.
For Mr. Biden, the abortion issue is one of political survival. He has centered his reelection pitch around three central issues: abortion rights, the economy and the idea that Mr. Trump is a threat to democracy.
Voters give Mr. Biden poor marks on the economy, even as inflation has eased.
Voters rank the fate of democracy behind the economy, government spending and immigration as the top issues in the election, according to a recent Associated Press/NORC Center for Public Affairs poll.
While Democrats rally around the abortion issue, Republicans shy away from it after several ballot box rebukes on abortion measures, including in conservative-leaning states such as Ohio and Kentucky.
Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor who is challenging Mr. Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, recently urged her party to “find consensus” on the abortion issue.
“As much as I’m pro-life, I don’t judge anyone for being pro-choice, and I don’t want them to judge me for being pro-life,” she said during a primary debate in November.
Mr. Trump has sought to have it both ways. He wants to take credit for appointing Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade but has balked at more restrictive laws, such as Florida’s ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who dropped out of the Republican presidential race on Sunday, signed the ban into law.
“You’ve got to win elections,” Mr. Trump said on Fox News when pressed about his fluid stance on abortion.
The Biden campaign seized on Mr. Trump’s recent remark that he was proud of his role in overturning Roe.
“Proud that women across our nation are suffering?” Ms. Harris said at a campaign event in Wisconsin. “Proud that women have been robbed of a fundamental freedom? Proud that doctors could be thrown in prison for caring for their patients?”
• Dave Boyer contributed to this report.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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