This is the second story in a series examining the impact of the fall of Roe v. Wade with the Supreme Court’s ruling last June in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
When President Biden rallied Democrats last September ahead of the midterm elections, he predicted that the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade caused major electoral ramifications.
“Republicans have awakened a powerful force in this country: women,” Biden said. “Here you come.”
And he was right.
Biden received a political gift a year ago when the Supreme Court struck down the nation’s right to access abortion. Although the president faced criticism immediately after the ruling for not responding more aggressively to protect access, the issue helped propel Democrats to a better-than-expected midterm result.
They added a seat to their majority in the Senate and managed to limit Republican gains in the House.
Also, last year, Kentucky voters rejected a ballot proposal that would have amended the state constitution to state that there is no guaranteed right to abortion. Kansans voted to maintain existing abortion protections in the state, while voters in Michigan, California and Vermont approved new abortion protections in the months following the Dobbs decision.
The issue will remain central in the 2024 presidential election, with the Supreme Court decision giving Biden and his team a tangible way to argue that a Republican in the White House could lead to a national ban.
“It brought some clarity to the importance of voting for people who will protect your rights, voting for people who will not give that power and control to the government, but keep it where the voters think it should be,” Christina Reynolds said. . , senior vice president of communications and content at EMILY’s List.
Special Report: Roe v. Wade Falls — One year later
The White House has worked over the past year to make its defense of reproductive rights consistent and clear.
“The Vice President and I are doing everything we can to protect access to reproductive health care and safeguard patient privacy. But already, more than a dozen states are enforcing extreme abortion bans ” Biden said in his State of the Union address in February.
“Make no mistake, if Congress passes a national abortion ban, I will veto it,” the president added.
Vice President Harris has led the White House’s charge on the issue, criss-crossing the country and meeting with local leaders and advocates to roll back GOP-driven state laws that the administration considers too extreme to restrict abortions. She is headed to Charlotte, North Carolina, on Saturday to mark the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision.
Abortion as a national and local issue
The White House sees the problem as a national and local problem. It recently hosted more than 80 state lawmakers from 41 states to discuss state laws that restrict reproductive rights. Local leaders, which included representatives from red states like Alabama, Arkansas and Florida, met with Jennifer Klein, director of the Gender Policy Council; Neera Tanden, Director of the Domestic Policy Council, and Karine Jean-Pierre, White House Press Secretary.
“It’s important to bring them home and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got your back,'” Jean-Pierre said of the meeting.
With Harris and Biden constantly discussing abortion rights in White House speeches, in meetings with reproductive health advocates and officials, and through targeted state visits, they have been able to keep the issue on the minds of voters far beyond of the mid-term elections.
The White House has taken limited action over the past year.
Biden signed an executive order less than a month after the Supreme Court ruling with some incremental steps to protect access to emergency medical care for women seeking abortions in states that ban it.
Earlier this year, he issued a presidential memorandum that will further protect access to medication abortion by ensuring that doctors can prescribe and dispense it across the U.S. And in April, the administration announced new actions to safeguard patient privacy after a federal judge’s ruling in Texas sought to limit the abortion drug mifepristone.
Abortion and the 2024 election
As the 2024 election approaches, some strategists have suggested that Republican presidential candidates will do much of the work for the administration and Democrats by publicly supporting restrictive abortion laws, crystallizing the possible additional consequences for access.
“I think a lot of the issues that helped elect Biden in 2020 are still out there, and I think Dobbs adds some premium fuel to build a winning coalition for 2024,” said Ivan Zapien, a former DNC official. . “Mind you, he doesn’t really need to do much here. State Republicans are doubling down on Dobbs-related legislation that’s really unpopular in the suburbs, so at this point, it’s a gift to his re-election prospects.”
Hill 2024 election coverage
Former President Trump, during a CNN town hall last month, repeatedly dodged questions about whether he would sign a federal abortion ban if re-elected. But he has declared several times in recent weeks that he “was able to kill Roe v. Wade,” crediting himself with appointing three conservative justices who sided with the majority.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed a ban on abortions in the state after six weeks of pregnancy. Sen. Tim Scott (R.C.) has said he would sign the most pro-life legislation that comes across his desk if elected. Former Vice President Mike Pence has said he supports taking abortion drugs off the market and expressed support for a proposed 15-week federal ban on the procedure.
But nationally, abortion access is popular.
A Gallup poll released June 14 found that 69 percent of Americans believe abortion should generally be legal in the first three months of pregnancy, a record for the poll.
The poll found that most Americans oppose late-term abortions. But the 37 percent who say the procedure should be legal in the second trimester of pregnancy and the 22 percent who say it should be legal in the last trimester of pregnancy also mark all-time highs for a poll from Gallup.
Abortion will remain a top issue for voters in 2024 because Republicans have made it so, said Katie Grant Drew, Democratic communications strategist and director of Monument Advocacy.
“Republicans continue to show that they are out of step with Americans on this issue, and with a number of GOP-controlled state legislatures enacting or debating legislation, this issue will remain on the minds of a wide swath of electorate,” she said.
Although the president has pushed for Congress to codify Roe v. Wade, the GOP-controlled House and narrow Senate margins have made that a non-starter. Previous efforts to pass legislation that would codify and expand the right to abortion failed.
Democrats would have to win big in 2024 to increase their margins in Congress enough to pass the measure, which has led them to focus on on local ballot measures to advance the issues.
“The president will remind voters what’s at stake in 2024. Dobbs will be a factor in every election until access to reproductive freedom is available to all,” said Mary Beth Stanton, Democratic strategist and director of invariant “It’s hard to see a codification of Roe getting done in Congress given the Senate filibuster, but there will be ballot measures in the states to help shore up down-ballot elections and boost voter turnout as well.”
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
