At one small rally in Washington, protesters carried signs and T-shirts bearing phrases like “I am the post-Roe generation,” and “Unborn Lives Matter,” urging national-level restrictions on abortion.
Steve Karlen, an anti-abortion campaigner, and his wife, Laura, traveled to the capital from the Midwestern state of Wisconsin to “celebrate” Roe’s reversal, which also fell on their wedding anniversary.
“It’s a blessing to have the abortion decision going back to the states,” said Laura, a stay-at-home mother to five children. “But ultimately what we want is the unborn children to be protected (nationally) – that everyone in our country will have the right to live.”
With a divided US Congress, there is little Biden can do. Still, he said he would push for federal-level protections.
“My administration will continue to protect access to reproductive health care and call on Congress to restore the protections of Roe v Wade in federal law once and for all,” he said.
Abortion rights proved a key issue for Democrats in the 2022 midterm elections, and are likely to be just as important in the 2024 presidential race.
They’ve also become an animating feature in Republican campaigns. Primary candidates are currently trying to outflank former president Donald Trump, the current frontrunner for the party’s nomination, who has been criticized for flip-flopping on his position.
Speaking in Washington on Friday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis hailed the six-week abortion ban he signed into law in his state, while ex-vice president Mike Pence challenged every candidate to back a nationwide prohibition.
“It was the right thing to do – don’t let anyone tell you it wasn’t,” DeSantis said in a veiled swipe at Trump, who has criticised the Florida law as “too harsh.”
The same day, Biden won the endorsement from the nation’s leading abortion-rights groups, including Planned Parenthood, NARAL and Emily’s List.
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