Biden refocuses his campaign on abortion rights, reminding voters Trump took Roe away

President Joe Biden holds a 360-degree view of bad news. Everywhere he turns, trouble looms in his bid for a second term.

The economy? It’s rebounding with a surge last week in profits for investors, but consumers still don’t seem so confident.

Foreign affairs? Russia and Ukraine are still slogging it out and Israel is still on the hunt for Hamas, with Gaza taking a gruesome beating and so many hostages waiting to go home.

The southern border? A bipartisan effort to reform immigration could stall as conservatives seek to hang that problem around Biden’s neck in November. This all is hitting Biden right in his approval ratings as he ramps up his campaign.

The best news for Biden right now is what was seen by many progressives as the worst thing to happen in his first term – the conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade’s constitutional protection for abortion in June 2022.

That issue drives voters, giving Biden his best opportunity to bounce back.

Biden leans into message on abortion rights vs. Trump

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, along with Democratic surrogates, spent this week talking about the 51st anniversary of Roe’s landmark ruling. That assembly was heavy with swing states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Biden and Harris spoke to a cheering crowd in Northern Virginia on Tuesday, and both made sure to place the blame for the end of Roe squarely on former President Donald Trump, now the likely Republican nominee for president.

Trump appointed the three conservative justices who swung the balance of power against abortion in 2022.

Biden drew his strongest round of applause when he vowed to veto any federal abortion ban if Congress passes one. And he called on the crowd to give Democrats full control of the U.S. House and Senate in this year's election to restore reproductive freedoms.

"I don’t think this court and the MAGA Republicans have any clue about the power of women in America. ... They’re about to find out," Biden said. "There's one other person who doesn't have a clue about the power of women in America. It's Donald Trump. But I promise you in 2024 he's going to find out about the power of you all."

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The issue of abortion has been a bright spot for Democrats on every kind of ballot, including the 2022 midterm elections. Making reproductive rights a key component in races, from state house seats to the U.S. Senate, resulted in plenty of wins.

Post Roe, 25 million women live in states where abortion access is restricted. And they're voting about it.

"Since Roe was overturned, tens of millions of Americans in red states and blue marched to the polls in defense of fundamental freedoms," Harris said Tuesday.

Republican efforts to remove abortion rights will help Biden

Now, Biden can pull a little political judo on Trump.

The president can take his 2020 rival's primary strength and leverage it against him in November's general election. Trump loves to brag about appointing the Supreme Court justices who unraveled Roe. That wins rave reviews from Republican primary voters.

But some want more.

After decades of Republican calls to let state legislatures make the call on reproductive rights, anti-abortion conservatives are agitating for a federal ban and even clamoring to dial back access to contraception.

You know, yay for states' rights (unless nay for states' rights). That pushes Trump into a tricky situation.

Voters have been clear on what they want with abortion rights

In a Gallup poll on abortion last summer, 34% of Americans said the procedure should be legal under any circumstances, while 51% said it should be legal under certain circumstances.

Just 13% said it should be illegal in all circumstances.

A strong majority (74%) of voters registered as independents, a key voting segment for the president, and Democratic voters (86%) want abortion to be legal in the first three months of pregnancy, while 47% of Republicans supported that.

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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, told CBS News on Sunday that "crossover voters" who sided with her on reproductive rights helped her easily win a second term in her swing state in 2022.

"Abortion is on the ballot in all 50 states," Whitmer said before urging Biden to use "more blunt language" while talking about Democratic support for reproductive rights threatened by Republicans. Whitmer didn't outright say it – she didn't have to. Her point was made.

Abortion and reproductive rights are solid strengths for Democrats in this electorate. While the world is a mess, and any president takes the blame for that, Trump and the Republicans are handing Biden a winning hand on a topic that matters to people.

Trump knows when he's walking in dangerous territory. He doesn't want to be nailed down with any new positions on abortion.

Even Trump knows abortion is a winning topic for Biden

In a Fox News town hall broadcast from Iowa two weeks ago, the one-term president served up a poorly prepared word salad when asked how he would “protect all life ... without compromise.”

He called overturning Roe “a miracle” but then said – four times in quick succession – that Republicans have “to win elections.”

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Then Trump, who loves to talk about how “strong” he is on just about every topic or policy, eventually suggested that “there has to be a little bit of a concession one way or the other” on abortion.

Here is Trump’s no-win predicament: The voters who want him to further restrict abortion access are already in his camp (but he can’t give them what they want). The voters who oppose Roe being overturned hold him responsible (since he’s eager to take the credit).

Trump’s biggest asset in the primary is also his biggest liability in the general election. Look to Biden and his surrogates to make that point again and again between now and November.

Follow USA TODAY elections columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Abortion is the 2024 election issue. Biden is reminding voters of that