President Joe Biden on Monday blasted Donald Trump for advocating that abortion be left to the states, blaming his GOP rival for “creating the cruelty and chaos that has enveloped America” since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
“When he ripped away Roe v. Wade, he ripped away a fundamental right,” Biden said in a statement released by his reelection campaign. “As a fundamental right, it didn’t matter where you lived. It was granted to you as an American, not as a resident of any state.”
Biden’s rebuke came shortly after Trump posted a video taking credit for gutting Roe, yet also arguing that individual states should determine when and how harshly to restrict access to abortion. The announcement aimed to defuse the issue for Trump, who had come under intense pressure to stake out a clear position after toying for weeks with endorsing a blanket 15-week ban.
Trump has privately fretted that the issue is politically toxic for Republicans, especially if they don’t come out in support of exemptions for the life and health of the mother. Yet passing the issue off to the states quickly opened up the former president to criticism from all sides. Anti-abortion activists expressed their disappointment with Trump for not coming out for a national policy. And the Biden campaign seized on the renewed attention to the issue to launch a barrage of attacks.
“Trump is scrambling,” Biden said. “There is nothing more un-American than having our personal freedoms taken away. And that is what Donald Trump has done.”
The president in his statement singled out Florida’s plan to impose a six-week abortion ban, noting it as an example of a state-level abortion restriction that would make the procedure “illegal before many women know they’re pregnant.”
Trump, who is a Florida resident, has not said whether he supports the state ban and did not address the issue in his video. But Biden campaign officials and allies are likely to link Trump to the harshest of the state restrictions implemented since Roe was overturned, warning that his election would only empower more such crackdowns. Biden’s campaign team was planning to hold a briefing later this afternoon to further press the issue.
The Biden campaign has long planned to make abortion rights a central element of its reelection effort, out of the belief it has a clear advantage on an issue that voters passionately and increasingly support.
Biden, despite having exhibited some discomfort in talking about abortion in the past, has repeatedly vowed to restore Roe v. Wade if given the chance. He has cast the election as an existential moment for women’s reproductive freedoms. That stance has also offered a sharp contrast with Trump and Republicans, who have struggled for nearly two years to find a tenable consensus for where they stand following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.
“Having created the chaos of overturning Roe, he’s trying to say, ‘Oh, never mind. Don’t punish me for that. I just want to win,’” Biden said.
