President Joe Biden is using the one-year anniversary of the Dobbs decision — the Supreme Court ruling that scuttled Roe v. Wade after 50 years — to push to codify the rights that had been protected by Roe. (The administration has sometimes characterized these rights as individual privacy rights.)
Biden is talking directly to what polls indicate is a majority of Americans who favor a woman’s right to choose. The President is making the case that in federal and state governments an aggressive minority is dictating policy on abortion rights that the majority doesn’t want.
Biden says Congress has to do more, tweeting that he has already done what, on his own via Executive Order, he is able to do to protect these rights.
After the Supreme Court's extreme decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, I signed an executive order to safeguard access to health care services like abortion and promote the safety and security of patients, providers, and clinics—but Congress must do more. pic.twitter.com/3re4z4xoni
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 24, 2023
But while Congress would need to pass legislation at the federal level — a highly unlikely scenario given the GOP’s control of the House — it is the numerous post-Roe bans and prohibitions at the state level that are actively curbing access to abortion. (Dobbs gave power back to the states.)
Biden has remained largely above the electoral scrum so far in his run for re-election, focusing his messaging on his administration’s accomplishments and future plans while barely acknowledging his GOP rivals for the presidency.
But in a telling tweet, triggered by the abortion issue, Biden calls out four Republican men who are running against him — and labels them “MAGA extremists.”
The Biden tweet puts the two GOP frontrunners, Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, on the same tier, perhaps an acknowledgement of what Biden believes he faces. Candidates Tim Scott and Mike Pence occupy the lower quadrants.
The “MAGA extremists,” Biden’s tweet says, “are lining up to take on our bedrock freedoms by dictating the health care decisions a woman can make.”
MAGA extremists have taken credit for killing Roe v. Wade and are lining up to take on our bedrock freedoms by dictating the health care decisions a woman can make.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 24, 2023
We will never back down from protecting a woman’s right to choose. pic.twitter.com/2E3uLTGDju
Biden has also recently said: “Despite the will of the American people, MAGA Republicans made clear that they don’t intend to stop with the Dobbs decision. Make no mistake about it: if Congress were to pass a national abortion ban, I will veto it.”
