Biden seeks to make Trump the face of the anti-abortion movement

Biden’s campaign seeks to make former President Trump the face of the anti-abortion movement, while Democrats seek to control voter fury following the overturn of Roe v. Wade.

At campaign stops in the days since Arizona’s Civil War abortion ban was upheld, Vice President Kamala Harris has come out harshly against “Trump’s abortion bans” and accused the former president of “gaslighting” Americans about whether he would sign a national agreement. ban if he wins a second term.

Meanwhile, an ad released by the Biden campaign last week featured a woman who suffered near-fatal complications after being denied an abortion. “Donald Trump did it,” the ad said.

“The more bans, the better for Biden. The more bans, the worse for Trump,” said Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf. “Supporting a ban on abortion, for Democrats, is a smart move. Why? It’s another way to isolate Trump, and Trump has to respond to that.”

Biden’s team is trying to ensure abortion “stays around [Trump’s] neck” in states with narrow presidential race margins, Sheinkopf said, as Democrats more broadly hope the issue — along with state-level ballot measures aimed at enshrining abortion rights — will increase candidates’ vote share. .

“The overturning of Roe was just the opening act… of a broader strategy to take away women’s rights and freedoms — part of an all-out, state-by-state attack on reproductive freedom,” Harris said in Tucson last week, after that the Arizona Supreme Court approved a decision. Law of 1864 that made carrying out the procedure a crime. “And we must all understand who is to blame – former President Donald Trump did this.”

The Arizona ban came shortly after a Florida State Supreme Court ruling gave the green light to a strict six-week ban in the Sunshine State. This followed a February ruling by the Alabama State Supreme Court that declared frozen embryos to be children under state law, raising questions about in vitro fertilization (IVF) and forcing Republicans to scramble to respond in amid a bipartisan backlash.

The developments have thrust what has been a winning issue for Democrats in previous cycles further into the national spotlight ahead of November. They also raised questions about Trump’s stance on the issue, as the former president walks a fine line in an effort to appeal to moderates while not alienating the anti-abortion Republicans who make up the base.

“Democrats in general – the [Biden] campaign, the candidates — are absolutely right to tie this to Trump,” said Democratic strategist Jon Reinish. And in a highly competitive election cycle, where recent polls have shown Trump with a lead in critical swing states, “this could be a very important boost for the president and the campaign,” Reinish said.

Trump appointed three conservative justices to the Supreme Court during his tenure in the Oval Office, leading to the 5-4 decision in 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade. Wade and turn abortion regulation over to individual states. Fury over the Supreme Court ruling was seen as crucial fuel for Democrats in that year’s midterm elections.

Trump, who as president supported a House bill to ban most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, stressed in a video last week that he was “proudly the person responsible” for ending Roe. But in the same video, he also refused to say whether he would support federal restrictions on abortion if he were elected again and said that limits on abortion should be left up to the states.

The Arizona decision, which came shortly after the release of his video, immediately put the spotlight back on Trump’s views. The former president later told reporters that he would not sign the abortion ban if it reached his desk, prompting the Biden campaign to call him a “liar.”

Michael Tyler, communications director for the Biden campaign, said in a statement that Trump “has a record: banning abortion whenever he can,” and the new campaign ad tells the story of a Texas woman who was denied access to an abortion “because Donald Trump killed Roe v. Wade.”

Harris has been the administration’s top deputy on abortion and began a national tour earlier this year focused on the fight for abortion access.

She is now playing a “particularly effective” role in campaigning on abortion as the race to 2024 heats up, Reinish said.

“This is a woman taking the lead in speaking out about women’s health and the decisions that belong first and foremost to women,” Reinish said. “I think she also has a track record of going deeper and harder and deeper than Biden himself on this issue. And he seems very happy for her to play this role.”

At a stop Monday in Nevada, another swing state with a competitive Senate race, Harris criticized the former president for avoiding the issue of a federal ban while she was rallying support for an abortion-related ballot effort in the state.

“There is a direct relationship between what we saw in states like Arizona, what the people of Nevada are fighting for and who the previous president was,” Harris told supporters in Las Vegas on Monday.

Abortion is legal in Nevada in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy, but organizers are pushing for a Amendment to Reproductive Rights to the state constitution. Similar efforts are already on the ballot in New York and Maryland — both blue strongholds but which could play critical roles in the battle for the House and Senate, respectively — as advocates seek to safeguard abortion against future threats.

Campaigns to put abortion measures on the ballot in November are also underway in red states like Missouri, Montana and Nebraska.

Strategists say the measures could be a big boost to turnout as much of the electorate shows a lack of enthusiasm for the Biden-Trump rematch at the top of the ticket.

“Not all of these women are going to protest,” said Martha McKenna, a Democratic strategist and veteran of EMILY’s List, a group that supports female candidates for public office. “Not all of these women are going to get involved in politics, but when people are given the opportunity to go to the polls and affirm women’s reproductive freedom, they will take advantage of it.”

Voters in Michigan, California and Vermont approved ballot measures enshrining the right to abortion in their state constitutions during the semester, as did deep-red Ohio last year. And in the wake of Alabama’s recent ruling, a Democratic candidate who campaigned on reproductive rights won a conservative seat in the state House in a recent special election.

Putting abortion rights at the forefront is “the right thing to do from a political perspective,” McKenna said, pointing to polls that show widespread support for protecting access to the procedure. “It’s also electorally beneficial for Democrats and a huge problem for Republicans,” she said.

A measure to enshrine the right to abortion is expected to appear on the November ballot in Trump’s home state of Florida, where advocates hope to undo a restrictive ban protecting the procedure before viability.

Amid growing national scrutiny on the issue, the former president will likely face increasing pressure over how he will vote on the measure in the fall, said Republican strategist Liz Mair.

“No matter how he responds” it will risk alienating voters in a party largely divided on cuts and exceptions, Mair said. Trump last year called Florida’s six-week ban was a “terrible mistake,” but last week he called Democrats “radical” for supporting later abortions.

Abortion is “pretty much the only card Democrats have to play,” Mair said. “But I think it’s really good. I don’t know if that’s enough to win the election, but it could be.”