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Crowds cheer as President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign rally in Tampa, Florida, on April 23, 2024.
Washington
CNN
—
President Joe Biden and his allies are set to mark the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade this week and focus on an issue his team sees as key to his reelection.
The Biden campaign is holding more than 50 events across the country leading up to the second anniversary of the election on Monday. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization The decision overturned federal abortion rights. Biden’s rep, celebrities and politicians will attend the event.
First Lady Jill Biden is scheduled to attend a “Biden-Harris Supporting Women” event in Pennsylvania on Sunday, while Vice President Kamala Harris will attend two events in Arizona and Maryland on Monday to mark Biden-Harris Inauguration Day. Dobbs Decision. No. 2 Rep. Doug Emhoff is scheduled to participate in a roundtable and caucuses in Michigan on Monday.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed last week that the administration also plans to “observe” the anniversary on Monday, but no details were immediately released.
The strategy is consistent with the campaign’s belief that voters will be most interested in the concrete issues that could affect their daily lives in November’s election, rather than the global crises and debates about the age and qualifications of the candidates that dominate the national conversation.
The Biden campaign has for months been using reproductive rights to mobilize voters, particularly young people and women who are crucial to his reelection. Both Biden and Harris have repeatedly touted former President Donald Trump’s bragging rights about forming a conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court and overturning the Republican presidential primary. egg Two years ago, they warned that a Trump reelection could herald a nationwide abortion ban.
Harris has been traveling the country since the beginning of the year on her “Fight for Reproductive Freedom” tour, focusing on states such as Florida and Arizona that have passed or maintained laws that restrict women’s access to abortion care.
“We know how this happened and who is responsible,” Harris said at an online campaign event earlier this month. “Donald Trump has elected to appoint three justices to the Supreme Court of the United States, Roe v. WadeAnd they did as he intended, with Trump’s anti-abortion laws now on the books in over 20 states.
The vice president stressed that other reproductive rights could be at risk if Trump is re-elected, given the Supreme Court’s conservative majority.
“When extremists on the Supreme Court and across the country take away basic freedoms like the freedom to make decisions about your own body, we should expect anything to happen,” Harris said. “This should be a wake-up call for all of us.”
Jill Biden, meanwhile, has reserved some of her fiercest criticism of her husband’s political opponents for the debate over women’s health care.
“Donald Trump,” the first lady told boos at an event in Atlanta in early March, “has spent his whole life degrading us, degrading our existence. He’s mocked women’s bodies, belittled our accomplishments, bragged about assault. Now he’s bragged about murder. Roe v. Wade. ”
“He has once again claimed credit for enabling states like Georgia to pass brutal anti-abortion laws that strip women of the right to make their own health care decisions,” the first lady said. “How far will he go? When will he stop? You know the answer: he won’t stop.”
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling in June 2022, roughly 20 states have banned abortion procedures or restricted access to abortion. States with the most restrictions on abortion report higher maternal and infant mortality rates, as well as greater economic insecurity.
President Biden, at a recent fundraiser, argued that there could be a vacancy on the Supreme Court over the next four years and that if Trump were to fill it, individual freedoms could be diminished.
“If I’m re-elected, I’m going to have two more flags flying upside down,” Biden said at a fundraiser in Los Angeles over the weekend, appearing to refer to Justice Samuel Alito’s flag controversy.
Asked by host Jimmy Kimmel if that was one of the scariest things about another Trump term, Biden replied, “It’s one of the scariest things.”
“The Supreme Court has never been more off balance than it is today, never before,” the president added.
CNN’s Arlette Saenz and Aaron Perish contributed to this report.
