U.S. President Joe Biden is stepping up his offensive every day on abortion rights, which have emerged as a major agenda for the November presidential election. In his State of the Union address on the 7th, he said, “If I am re-elected, I will guarantee through legislation the right to abortion, which was abolished by the Supreme Court,” and in an MSNBC interview on the 10th, he explicitly criticized the Supreme Court, saying, “The Supreme Court made a mistake.” Even though he knew that it violated the principle of separation of powers, he directly criticized the decision of the judiciary.
In an interview that day, President Biden claimed, “They (the Supreme Court justices) made a mistake,” saying, “They made a wrong decision and misread the Constitution.” He declared that women are raising their voices for the abolition of abortion rights and that the current situation in which abortion rights are not guaranteed will change.
In June 2022, the Supreme Court annulled the Roe v. Wade decision, which had guaranteed abortion rights at the federal level since 1973. In this situation, it is unusual for the incumbent president to criticize the nine Supreme Court justices, who serve for life and are considered the nation’s highest elite, for “misreading the Constitution.”
President Biden’s move appears to be because it has been proven that the abortion rights agenda is influential in mobilizing voters who support the ruling Democratic Party. In the November 2022 midterm elections, held five months after the repeal of abortion rights, Democratic Party supporters gathered to protest against the Supreme Court ruling. At the time, the Democratic Party maintained its majority position, contrary to initial predictions that it would lose the Senate majority to the Republican Party.
However, there is also a sense of backlash from some women’s circles surrounding President Biden, who rarely uses the expression ‘abortion’. As an Irish Catholic, he was concerned about backlash from conservative Catholics, so in his State of the Union speech on the 7th, he euphemistically referred to ‘reproductive freedom’ and ‘freedom to choose’ instead of abortion. In response, some abortion rights advocacy groups expressed dissatisfaction, saying, “By not saying the word abortion, the president implied that abortion is taboo or something to be ashamed of.”
President Biden’s approval rating is also on the rise. In a survey conducted by Emerson University on the 5th and 6th of 1,350 voters across the United States, his approval rating was 45%, tied with former President Donald Trump, who was virtually confirmed as the opposition Republican Party candidate. In particular, among voters under 30, President Biden received the support of 43%, ahead of former President Trump (37%). Biden’s camp also announced on the 10th, “$10 million (approximately 13 billion won) in donations was collected in 24 hours after the State of the Union address,” adding, “This is the largest amount since the start of the re-election campaign.”
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.