Biden Campaign Redoubling Effort to Keep Abortion Rights Front of Mind for Voters

WASHINGTON — With the second anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade fast approaching, the Biden-Harris campaign is organizing volunteers to share what they’ve experienced since that ruling went into effect.

Decided on June 24, 2022, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization quickly became a watershed ruling in American politics and the lives of women across the country.

In a decision penned by Justice Samuel Alito Jr., the conservative majority on the court  dismissed Roe as “egregiously wrong from the start,” and held that the Constitution does not confer a right to an abortion.

The court’s 1973 ruling in Roe was predicated on the “concept of personal liberty” guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. The court held then that the right to personal liberty included a woman’s qualified right to terminate her pregnancy pre-viability.

Fifty years later, Alito was having none of that, writing, “The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision.”

Though he conceded the due process clause of the 14th Amendment had been relied upon to guarantee some rights not mentioned in the Constitution, Alito maintained that any such right must be “deeply rooted in this nation’s history and tradition” and “implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.”

Abortion, he said, failed to meet either of these criteria.

“Until the latter part of the 20th century, such a right was entirely unknown in American law,” he wrote. “Indeed, when the 14th Amendment was adopted, three quarters of the states made abortion a crime at all stages of pregnancy.

“Roe,” he continued, “was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences.

“[F]ar from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and [the subsequent Planned Parenthood v. Casey] have enflamed debate and deepened division,” he wrote.

Since the Dobbs decision, several Republican-controlled states have put new abortion restrictions into effect, including 14 that ban it at every stage of pregnancy.

Meanwhile, nine Democratically controlled states either have laws on their books or executive orders signed by their governors protecting access to reproductive health.

Additionally, in the wake of Dobbs, voters in seven states have voted in favor of ballot measures protecting abortion rights.

This year, voters in as many as a half dozen more states are likely to consider similar measures, and Democrats hope the issue will energize enough voters to keep President Joe Biden in the White House.

Deadlines are coming up between now and July 5 in five states where advocates are trying to gather enough voters’ signatures to put abortion-related questions on ballots in November’s elections.

Measures that would enshrine the right to abortion in state constitutions are already on the ballot in four states, and officials in two more are checking whether the petitions submitted there are valid. Additionally, New York’s attorney general is trying to get a question reinstated after a court removed it.

As part of its all-out effort to keep the issue front and center for the electorate, the Biden-Harris campaign will be holding over 30 events in the coming days in key cities, like Detroit, Atlanta and Philadelphia.

Each of these events will be headlined by elected officials, celebrities and women who have been adversely affected by the Dobbs decision.

Ahead of these events, the campaign has been actively calling for more potential storytellers to come forward and share their experiences.

They’ve also been holding in-person and online “storyteller trainings” to help those affected by abortion bans to tell voters the importance of reproductive freedom.

“Americans across the country vividly remember where they were two years ago when Trump’s Supreme Court majority overturned Roe, sending women’s health care into chaos and putting their lives in danger,” said Biden-Harris 2024 Campaign Manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez, in a written statement.

“Trump did this — he owns the state of reproductive rights in our country today and if he’s reelected he will go even further,” she continued. 

“This is one of the most galvanizing issues for Democrats, independents and even many Republican voters. Through events, mobilizing storytellers and blasting the airwaves, Biden-Harris 2024 will lay out that the only choice to restore and protect reproductive freedom is to vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in November,” she said.

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