CORRECTIONS, March 8, 2024: In 2022, Kansas voters rejected a proposed amendment that would have overridden a 2019 state Supreme Court ruling holding there is a constitutional right to obtain an abortion. An earlier version of this article mischaracterized the ballot initiative.
Also, Ohio voted to add the constitutional right to an abortion to the state constitution in 2023. A different state was named in an earlier version of this article.
President Joe Biden is clearly pinning his hopes for re-election on the issue of abortion, and he used it to cudgel the Supreme Court justices attending his State of the Union address Thursday night.
Six justices were present: Chief Justice John Roberts along with conservative Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, as well as liberal Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett did not attend.
The Supreme Court justices arrive in the House chamber ahead of Pres. Biden’s State of the Union address. #SOTU2024 https://t.co/ocMhOjhBIu pic.twitter.com/BSL60g2qI6
— ABC News (@ABC) March 8, 2024
In June 2022, by a 6-3 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Court ruled the Constitution did not address the issue of abortion, returning the matter to the states to decide.
The conservative justices made up the six that overturned Roe v. Wade.
Biden became very animated when addressing the subject.
“In its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade,” the president said, “the Supreme Court wrote the following.” Biden then broke off mid-sentence and turned to the justices in attendance.
Was this a threat?
“With all due respect, justices — women are not without electoral … or political power,” he said, drawing cheers from the Democratic side of the chamber.
“You’re about to realize just how much,” Biden added. Was that a threat to pack the court or just demagoguery? Maybe both.
Slamming the overturning of Roe v. Wade, President Biden stares directly at members of the U.S. Supreme Court:
“You’re about to realize” just how much “electoral and political power” women have. pic.twitter.com/AydzX59C18
— The Recount (@therecount) March 8, 2024
Biden continued, “Clearly those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade have no clue about the power of women, but they found out when reproductive freedom was on the ballot.”
He then stumbled over some words, but managed to get out: “We won in 2022 [on the issue]…and we’ll win again in 2024.”
Ballot initiatives placing the right to have an abortion in state constitutions have succeeded, even in red states like Ohio.
In other words, the voters and not the courts are deciding the matter.
Biden threw the red herring of “if Republicans gain control of Congress, they’ll ban abortion nationwide” — but the party is not running on that, and Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for president, is not, either.
Biden was demagoguing the abortion issue in his State of the Union speech because he’s hoping it will drive up his support among women.
Voters are more sophisticated than that, and most of them think the nation is on the wrong track under his leadership.
That will be the most determinative factor in November.
Correction: An earlier version of this story said Kansas voted to place the right to obtain an abortion in the state’s constitution.
