Since the Supreme Court’s verdict, a culture war over abortion rights has raged in many US states. US President Biden promises new legislation to help unintentionally pregnant women if he wins Congress.
Three weeks before the important congressional elections in the USA, President Joe Biden wants to make abortion rights the central campaign issue. The president pledged to reintroduce into law the nationwide abortion rights banned by the US Supreme Court in June if his Democrats defend and expand their congressional majorities.
Voters would have to elect more Democratic politicians in the House and Senate on November 8, Biden said in a speech in the capital Washington at an event of his party. “If we do, then this is my promise to you and the American people: The first law I send to Congress will be Roe v. Wade.”
In June, the Supreme Court with its conservative majority of judges overturned the “Roe v. Wade” ruling, which had been in force for almost 50 years and which had enshrined a nationwide fundamental right to abortion. This gave states the right to massively restrict or ban abortions. Numerous conservative states have now done so.
Biden has now said that with the necessary majorities in Congress, he could sign legislation next January that would restore the right to abortions nationwide. “Together we will restore the right to every woman in every state to choose an abortion,” the President said. “So vote, go vote, we can do it if we vote.”
The Supreme Court’s decision on abortion rights had triggered a political earthquake and caused many outraged reactions. The Democrats were early on to use this topic in the election campaign. Polls show, however, that voters care more about economic issues and, in particular, high inflation than abortion rights. The question is therefore to what extent the Democrats can score points with the abortion issue.
All 435 members of the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 senators will be re-elected in the midterm congressional elections on November 8th. Democrats currently have narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress. According to polls, the opposition Republicans are likely to gain a majority in the House of Representatives. The party of Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump could also achieve a majority in the Senate. In midterm elections, voters routinely punish the president’s party, and Biden has suffered from poor poll numbers for some time.
