President Biden launched an all-out assault on former President Donald Trump on the second anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, dubbing his GOP rival “the sole person responsible” for state abortion restrictions.
Mr. Biden on Monday took the unusual step of posting a video in which he reads Mr. Trump’s boasts on social media about his ability to kill the 1973 Roe decision after “50 years of failure.”
“Decades of progress shattered just because the last guy got four years in the White House,” Mr. Biden says to the camera.
Democrats were outraged by the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that eliminated the constitutional right to abortion and opened the door to state-by-state restrictions. But they are happy to use the issue as a weapon against Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, and down-ballot Republicans.
Red states have imposed a patchwork of abortion limits, either banning it outright or after a specific number of weeks into pregnancy. The decision to overturn Roe was made possible by the three right-leaning justices that Mr. Trump appointed.
“The consequences have been devastating: In states across the country, Trump’s allies have enacted extreme and dangerous abortion bans — many with no exception for rape or incest — that are putting women’s lives at risk and threatening doctors with jail time,” Mr. Biden said in a statement from his campaign. “Donald Trump is the sole person responsible for this nightmare.”
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Democrats are using abortion rights as a rallying call as they stare at a presidential matchup that is closer than they would like, or with Mr. Trump leading in key swing states.
The party is also straining to defend its Senate majority against a tough electoral map, with Republicans needing only a net gain of two seats or one seat and the presidency — the vice president is a tiebreaker — to take control of the chamber.
Angela Alsobrooks, the executive of Prince George’s County, highlighted abortion rights with Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday as she runs for Senate against former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican who had a successful tenure in the deep-blue state.
Although Mr. Hogan is running as an anti-Trump centrist, Democrats are trying to tie him to MAGA Republicans and the Trump agenda.
“Today is more than just an anniversary,” Ms. Alsobrooks said in College Park, Maryland. “It’s proof that we should never take for granted our liberties.”
Mr. Trump says the states should have the final say in whether to restrict abortion or leave broad rights in place.
He’s been reluctant to embrace a federal restriction on abortion, angering some pro-life allies. However, he enjoys taking credit for eliminating the Roe standard, a long-standing goal of his pro-life allies.
“The people will decide, and that’s the way it should be. The people are now deciding,” Mr. Trump told the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “2024 Road to Majority” conference on Saturday.
Mr. Trump made an open plea to pro-life evangelicals to vote in November.
“We need Christian voters to turn out and the largest numbers ever to tell crooked Joe Biden, ‘You’re fired. You’re fired, Joe. Get out of here,’” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Biden, meanwhile, is appealing to voters to return him to the White House with Democratic majorities in Congress so he can restore abortion rights. He argues Republicans won’t stop at abortion and could threaten contraception and in vitro fertilization.
“We won’t stop until we restore the protections of Roe v. Wade for every woman in every state,” Mr. Biden said.
The administration said 21 states have “dangerous and extreme abortion bans” and that 1 in 3 women of reproductive age, or about 27 million people, live in those places.
Officials cited many women who were turned away from hospitals while experiencing health emergencies from their pregnancies.
“This should never happen in America,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
Democrats who control the Senate are heaping pressure on Republicans by holding votes on bills to guarantee access to contraceptives and IVF treatments. GOP blocked consideration of the bills, and Democrats hope to use those votes to fuel their campaign message.
The administration pointed to efforts to protect contraception and abortion where it can, including paying for military members’ travel to get an abortion and advocating for abortion pills that are sometimes delivered by mail.
But “the only way to replace the [abortion] right that was lost is a federal law,” said Jennifer Klein, director of the White House Gender Policy Council. “We will continue to fight for that. That will remain, first and foremost, our vision and intent for the next term.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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