President Joe Biden, who is arguably the most pro-abortion president in U.S. history, is not pro-abortion enough to satisfy the left-wing media.
At a Wednesday fundraiser, the 81-year-old president said, “I’m a practicing Catholic. I don’t want abortion on demand, but I thought Roe v. Wade was right.” That statement has Biden in hot water with left-wing outlets The Nation and Slate, whose writers criticized him for supposedly not being wholly dedicated to killing the unborn ahead of the November presidential election. Susan Rinkunas wrote for Slate:
As a matter of strategy—and anything Biden says about abortion ought to be a matter of strategy given its potential to keep him in the White House—it’s almost inconceivable why he doesn’t say something more like ‘I’m a practicing Catholic, and I think it’s wrong that Republicans want to ban abortion nationwide.’ He could even add, ‘I won’t let abortion access be further eroded, and I’ll fight to restore people’s rights.”‘
“But I think we all know the issue here: Biden’s long-standing personal distaste for abortion makes him incapable of forcefully campaigning for women to have more rights than fetuses,” she added.
Biden seems to only use the word “abortion” to stigmatize the procedure, recently invoking “abortion on demand” in a defensive crouch. Women demand abortions because they need them. Biden should treat pregnant people like full human beings. Me in @Slate https://t.co/43kCZu7pzs
— Susan Rinkunas (NEW ACCT) (@SusanRinkunas) February 9, 2024
Rinkunas further called Biden’s approach to abortion “certainly not enough” and “yet another example of Biden assuming a defensive crouch on the Democrats’ most salient 2024 issue.”
“Biden also noted his disapproval of ‘abortion on demand’ during a White House meeting on the anniversary of the Roe ruling. Whether this comment is a favored ad-lib or something his speechwriters cooked up, it needs to go, immediately,” she continued.
Abortion is one of Biden’s strongest issues, but a lifetime of hedging and ambivalence prevents him from speaking forcefully on it. https://t.co/MYt9MwCYUr
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) February 9, 2024
In an article titled: “Biden’s Abortion Ambivalence Is Self-Defeating,” writer Jeet Heer called Biden “at best a reluctant warrior on the issue,” also citing the president’s Wednesday comments and invocation of his Catholic faith.
“Biden’s hedging language about abortion highlights one of the paradoxes of the 2024 election: His best hope for reelection comes from harnessing the fierce pro-choice sentiments that have erupted after the Dobbs decision, but the president is at best a reluctant warrior on the issue,” Heer opined.
“Biden’s history suggests that the pro-choice position is one he came to tardily and half-heartedly in order to stay viable as a political figure in the Democratic Party,” Heer continued.
Heer argued that “sending mixed messages makes no sense when you want to raise the salience of and passion around abortion” and accused the president of speaking on the issue in “stilted, euphemistic terms.”
Heer added that Biden’s campaign promise to “restore Roe” does not go nearly far enough for pro-abortion activists. Heer wrote:
Even the invocation of Roe—which echoes Biden’s frequent promise to “restore Roe”—puts him at odds with pro-choice groups, which have repeatedly insisted that the goal, now that the 2022 Dobbs decision ended Roe, should be to codify into law protections of reproduction freedom that are stronger and more entrenched, rooted in claims not just of a privacy right but also the fundamental rights of women to be equal citizens.”
“…The abortion issue highlights the dilemma of this presidential election. Democrats can win if they speak in the language of 2024, but they have tied themselves to a president whose entire worldview is shaped by middle decades of the last century. The horrific Dobbs decision was a political gift to the Democratic Party, but if anyone can squander that gift, it’s Joe Biden,” Heer concluded.
Despite these criticisms, the Biden administration has arguably become the most pro-abortion administration in U.S. history, working through executive orders, rule-making and guidance from unelected government bureaucrats, and various legal challenges to install its abortion-on-demand agenda around the country and the world.
Furthermore, killing the unborn is Biden’s day-one, number-one priority if he is reelected, his staff has said — a strategy designed to bludgeon Republicans and appeal to a wide swath of women and young voters accustomed to 50 years of the “right” to abortion invented under the now-defunct Roe v. Wade decision
RELATED: Decoding Democrat Joe Biden’s 2024 Abortion Playbook
The strategy is interesting, given that most overall polling shows the issue of abortion is not Americans’ top priority. But the intense focus is not unexpected, given that one in four Democrats are single-issue voters on abortion and that the majority of independents identify as “pro-choice.” The focus on abortion and painting Republicans as dangerous to women also seems like a ploy to distract from Americans’ top concerns under the Biden administration: the flailing economy and the border, which is essentially open.
The Biden campaign has specifically focused on “restoring Roe.” Under Roe, a “right” to abortion was established before “viability,” which is generally considered to be between 22 to 24 weeks of pregnancy. Since Dobbs, some states have passed stricter laws regulating abortion, while others, run by Democrats, have loosened abortion laws and appealed to pro-abortion women in red states.
Part of Biden’s focus on restoring Roe includes blaming former President Donald Trump — the likely Republican nominee — for installing three Supreme Court justices who ultimately helped overturn Roe. Trump has touted his nominations and the overturn of Roe as one of his major first-term victories.
The Biden campaign is further capitalizing off of the abortion issue by warning voters that Republicans want to pass a national ban, stealing conservative talking points about freedom and government control, creating confusion around what kinds of health care are accessible to women, and pointing to high-profile cases of women who have been denied abortions.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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