Biden vows to codify Roe into law if Democrats expand Congress majority: 'You gotta vote'

WASHINGTON — Seeking to rally his party ahead of next month’s midterm elections, President Biden promised Tuesday to enshrine abortion access into law, if Democrats manage to expand majorities in Congress to pass such a bill first.

It was a blunt reminder that politics is a game of numbers, a reality check for progressives who have complained about the slow pace of legislative progress. “Right now, we’re short a handful of votes,” Biden admitted, but then used today’s pervasive gridlock as a motivating factor: “If you care about the right to choose, then you gotta vote.”

Biden made his remarks at a Democratic National Committee event at the Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C. A large banner that served as a backdrop also encapsulated the message of the day: “Restore Roe.”

The 1973 decision by the Supreme Case in Roe v. Wade legalized abortion nationwide — but also served as an animating, organizing force for conservatives who opposed the ruling. Their efforts finally succeeded this past spring, when an increasingly conservative Supreme Court overturned Roe with its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health.

Now it is Democrats who hope to use anger over the issue of abortion, as Republicans have for decades, to motivate their base. The defeat of a Kansas anti-abortion referendum over the summer, and attempts by some Republican candidates to soften their stances on reproductive rights, seemed to suggest the strategy is a sound one.

Anxiety over inflation has persisted, however, and some Democrats are concerned that abortion may not prove the galvanizing issue in November they had hoped it would be. Republican candidates, meanwhile, have continued to press what they see as their advantage on divisive social issues like immigration and crime, while generally avoiding discussing abortion.

Tuesday’s speech by the president was an effort to remind Democrats that their outrage over Dobbs was well warranted. Since the ruling, a dozen states have passed abortion bans, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has proposed a nationwide abortion ban should Republicans become the dominant party on Capitol Hill.

Biden also warned that the Dobbs ruling could empower Republicans to seek a rollback of civil liberties, including the right to same-sex marriage and contraception. In his concurrence to the Dobbs ruling, Justice Clarence Thomas invited legal challenges that could see the abnegation of so-called unenumerated rights, many of which Americans now take for granted.

Right now, Democrats control both chambers of Congress, but their hold on the evenly divided Senate is especially tenuous, with Vice President Kamala Harris as the deciding vote.

Republicans are likely to win control of the House, while Democrats could, according to projections, manage to maintain control of the Senate. A divided Congress, with each party controlling one chamber, would almost certainly bring Biden’s legislative efforts to a complete halt, with Capitol Hill bound to descend into partisan trench warfare.

Democratic victories in November, Biden argued, would provide a necessary bulwark against the efforts of Republicans in Congress, as well as of the conservative judges who filled the ranks of the federal judiciary during the Trump administration. “I want you to remember that the final say does not rest in the court now. It does not rest with extremist Republicans in Congress,” he said.

The new Congress, the 118th, will be seated on Jan. 3, 2023, just days before the 50th anniversary of the Roe decision. “The first bill that I will send to the Congress will be to codify Roe v. Wade,” Biden vowed. “And when Congress passes it, I'll sign it in January, 50 years after Roe was first decided. And together, we'll restore the right to choose for every woman in every state in America.”

Biden provided no specifics about his legislation. At a subsequent White House press briefing, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also declined to describe the proposal the president wants to send to Congress, though she said his primary concern was enshrining the protections provided by Roe.

Biden also vowed to enact an assault weapons ban, another progressive goal that would require an expansion of Democratic majorities on Capitol Hill. “I did it once, I’ll do it again,” he said in reference to his efforts on gun control during his time as a senator from Delaware.

Of course, neither restoring Roe nor instituting a new assault weapons ban will be possible if Republicans win in November, as Biden reminded Democrats on Tuesday.

“We can do this if we vote,” he urged.