A top campaign official for Joe Biden’s 2024 re-election bid has said that his top issue should he be re-elected will be to focus on abortion.
According to Politico, deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks, when asked about Biden’s top issues on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, simply said “First of all, Roe,” referring to the Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade, which was overturned in 2022 by the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
“The president has been adamant that we need to restore Roe,” Fulks continued. “It is unfathomable that women today wake up in a country with less rights than their ancestors had years ago.”
Biden has repeatedly voiced his support for abortion despite his own Catholic faith, which is firmly opposed to the practice. The 1973 decision in Roe legalized abortion nationwide as a “right,” which had long been controversial since there is no mention of abortion in the Constitution. The decision in Dobbs sent the issue of abortion back to the individual states, where some states have passed greater restrictions while others have expanded abortion access even further.
“No woman should be forced to go to court or flee her home state just to receive the health care she needs,” said Biden in the aftermath of Dobbs. “This should never happen in America, period.”
Several states have seen abortion approved by voters via statewide ballot referendums, even in traditionally Republican states such as Kansas, Montana, and Kentucky. However, all three of these states, and others in 2022, saw a significant undervote in all other statewide elections that same year compared to the number of voters who cast a ballot on the abortion question. This has led to speculation that even if Democrats make abortion a top campaign issue, it will not benefit Democratic candidates down-ballot.
Democrats have attempted to blame the rise in abortion restrictions on former President Donald Trump, the likely Republican nominee in this year’s election, due to the fact that his three Supreme Court appointees made the difference in the 6-3 ruling in Dobbs. However, Trump has since repeatedly stated that he feels the issue should now be left up to the individual states, and has even criticized harsher abortion bans such as the 6-week ban signed into law in Florida by Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.).
Fulks went on to say in the same interview that other top issues for a second Biden Administration include greater crackdowns on the Second Amendment, as well as continued efforts to cancel student loan debt.