Democrats back reproductive rights issues ahead of presidential election (File)
U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday criticized an “outrageous” Florida Supreme Court ruling that paved the way for a six-week abortion ban, seizing on an issue that Democrats hope will boost their reelection chances.
Monday’s ruling by the southern state’s conservative-dominated court puts Florida at the center of a growing nationwide battle over reproductive rights ahead of November’s U.S. presidential election.
“Yesterday’s extreme decision leaves millions of women in Florida and across the South even less able to access much-needed medical care,” Biden said in a statement.
Biden said the court’s ruling would trigger a Republican-backed law that would cut the current 15-week limit to six weeks “before many (women) even know they are pregnant.”
“This is outrageous,” he said.
Biden’s party of Democrats is championing reproductive rights issues and sees them as potential vote-winners ahead of a November rematch with Republican former President Donald Trump.
The U.S. Supreme Court, with a conservative majority that includes three Trump nominees, overturned federal abortion rights in June 2022 and left the issue to individual states to decide.
Vice President Kamala Harris has led a national tour to highlight the abortion issue, accusing far-right populist Trump of seeking to impose abortion bans across the United States.
“Donald Trump created this health care crisis, and he doesn’t plan to stop now,” she said in a statement.
“If Donald Trump gets his way, he will abolish abortion care in every state across the country.”
Florida’s ruling on Monday, meanwhile, comes as a court allows an abortion-rights amendment to appear on the November ballot.
‘extreme’
The state’s courts are considering the legality of abortion restrictions and a proposed amendment that would enshrine a woman’s right to an abortion in the Florida Constitution.
Biden is a devout Catholic and has been a staunch supporter of abortion since taking office.
Biden’s campaign said the decision in Florida could even help him win the state in November’s presidential election.
“This new, extreme abortion ban – for which Donald Trump personally paved the way – will now amount to a ban on the entire Southeast,” the Biden campaign said in a statement Monday night. ban.”
“Florida is not an easy state to win, but it is a winnable state for President Biden.”
Florida has been a Republican stronghold in recent years, winning when Trump took office in 2016 and again in 2020 when Biden defeated him.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who ran against Trump for the party’s presidential nomination earlier this year, has pushed conservative positions on “culture war” issues such as abortion and education.
About 20 states have banned or restricted abortion since the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.
But voters in several Republican-majority states opposed moves to restrict abortion.
In conservative states like Kansas and Kentucky, as well as the swing state of Michigan, voters rejected 2022 ballot initiatives that would have effectively banned abortion.
Ohio voters passed a constitutional amendment last year ensuring the right to abortion.
In addition to Florida, many other states are also advancing abortion ballot measures, including Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York and South Dakota.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
