Minutes after the Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade last summer, a group of West Wing aides raced to the Oval Office to inform President Biden of the decision. As they drafted a speech, Mr. Biden was the first person in the room to say what his administration had been clamoring for all along.
Passing federal legislation, she told the group, was “the only thing that would actually restore rights that were recently taken away,” recalled Jen Klein, the director of the White House Gender Policy Council.
But if the prospect of codifying Roe’s protections in Congress seemed like a long shot a year ago, it’s impossible to imagine now, with a far-right bloc in the House and a slim majority. of Democrats in the Senate.
However, with the battle over abortion rights turning back to individual states, Biden administration officials are working with a limited set of tools, including executive orders and the president’s exhortation power, to argue that Republicans running for election next year will impose even. more restrictions on abortion.
“Make no mistake, this election is about freedom on the ballot,” Mr. Biden said Friday at a Democratic National Committee event, where he collected the endorsements of several abortion rights groups.
Vice President Kamala Harris gave a speech in North Carolina on Saturday urging Americans to use their vote to protect abortion rights.
“Extremist Republicans in Congress are proposing to ban abortion across the country,” said Ms. Harris in a speech marking the first anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision to abolish the constitutional right to abortion after nearly 50 years. “But I have news for them: We don’t have that.”
He added that “this fight will not truly be won until we get this right for every American, which means that ultimately the United States Congress must take back what the Supreme Court took away.”
Ms. Klein, who recalled cheering news websites the day the decision came down in June, said he was “surprised but not surprised” by the court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
He added that “efforts to take drastic action do not represent the majority of opinion where people are on it.”
The White House argued that Mr. Biden had reached the legal limits of his power through executive actions. On Friday, his latest executive action in response to the Dobbs decision directed federal agencies to find ways to ensure and expand access to birth control.
Mr. Biden previously issued a memorandum to protect access to abortion drugs in pharmacies and acted to protect patients who cross state lines for care. The Justice Department has taken legal action against several states that restrict abortion. And the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the abortion-pill drug mifepristone was quickly challenged in the courts. (In April, the Supreme Court issued an order preserving access to the pill while the litigation continues.)
As the White House clarified its message on abortion rights, framing the fight as one that supports privacy, safety and civil rights, so did the president. Mr. Biden, a Catholic who attends mass almost every week, has fought throughout his career to defend abortion rights. Ever since Roe was turned down, he’s gotten brighter.
“I think that he is a person who has his own personal views, and it is also clear that Roe v. Wade was correctly decided,” said Ms. Klein.
Recent polls show that most Americans may feel the same way. A USA Today/Suffolk University poll conducted earlier this month found that one in four Americans say strict state-level abortion bans make them more supportive of abortion rights. of abortion. Another poll, conducted by PBS NewsHour, NPR and Marist, said that 61 percent of American adults support abortion rights.
Some activists suspect that some Republican presidential candidates are paying attention to the polls. Mike Pence, the former vice president and presidential candidate, said on Friday that he would support a 15-week national ban on the procedure. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina also supports such a ban.
Some candidates avoided a definite stance. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a six-week abortion ban into law in his state, though he has not said whether he would support a national ban.
“This is the right thing to do,” Mr. DeSantis said Friday at the signing of the legislation.
The GOP front-runner, former President Donald J. Trump, took credit for appointing the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, but he has also so far resisted accepting a federal ban.
As the GOP field assembles, the Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee will make abortion a major focus of the president’s re-election effort. Earlier this month, the Biden campaign launched an advertising campaign focused on battleground states, including funding billboards in Times Square that will highlight Republican efforts to restrict access to abortion. .
The Democratic National Committee also urged local Democrats to press Republicans to clarify their position on the national ban, believing it would help contrast Mr. Biden’s approach with extremist positions, according to one DNC official.
Inside the White House, Ms. Klein said officials are tracking court cases in individual states and bringing in abortion rights activists to compare notes on which policies have succeeded.
Still, activists are wary that the court’s victories will be short-lived and won’t remove the threat of a broader ban on abortion the way the law would.
In recent months, administration officials have often highlighted the stories of women who were denied emergency medical care when suffering pregnancy loss.
Ms. Harris, who has made many trips and given speeches in defense of abortion rights, often introduces medical care providers in his activities to strengthen the argument that the decision to end a Pregnancy is a private and non-local activity. politicians.
Jill Biden, the first lady, is also involved in the effort. On Tuesday, she hosted a group of women in the Blue Room of the White House and asked them to share their stories. One of the women, Dr. Austin Dennard, a doctor in Texas, said he was forced to travel out of state for an abortion when his fetus was diagnosed with anencephaly, a condition that causes a child to be born without parts of the brain and skull.
Another, a Houston-based Democratic campaign worker named Elizabeth Weller, was in labor for 18 weeks and was ordered to go home until the infection was so severe that a hospital ethics panel allowed a doctor to terminate the pregnancy.
“Joe did everything he could,” the first lady told the group.
Mini Timmaraju, the president of the abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America, agreed that the Biden administration is “doing everything they can,” but she said the limits are real.
“We need to give them a pro-choice majority Congress,” he said. “That’s it. They’ve done everything they can up to that point, but without the support of Congress, they’re limited and we’re limited in what we can do.
