President Biden's abortion rally disrupted by repeated protests over Gaza

WASHINGTON − President Joe Biden pushed through repeated heckling Tuesday from pro-Palestinian protesters in his first major campaign rally of 2024, providing a stark reminder of friction on the left that could threaten his reelection bid.

Biden, appearing with Vice President Kamala Harris and their spouses at a joint campaign rally in Manassas, Virginia, called on Democrats to help him restore abortion rights "with your voice, with your power, with your vote" as he blamed former President Donald Trump for dismantling the protections that had been guaranteed by Roe v. Wade.

But his message was cut off by about a dozen interruptions from protesters in the crowd who voiced their opposition to Biden's backing of Israel in its war in Gaza. One person chanted "Genocide Joe!" A woman shouted "Cease-fire now!" Another yelled "Israel kills two mothers every hour!" Several demonstrators were escorted out by security.

"This is going to go on for a while," Biden told the crowd at one point. "They've got this planned."

Though Biden sought to energize Democrats on abortion rights, the scene at the Hylton Performing Arts Center laid bare the discontent of many young progressives over a different debate: the war in the Middle East.

Although sporadic protests over the war in Gaza are not unusual at Biden events, the scene Tuesday was at another level. Biden was interrupted from his opening remarks – and then every couple of minutes until he finished.

Their outcries prompted Biden supporters standing behind the president to drown them out by chanting, "Four more years!" and "Let's go Joe!"

Biden, speaking under a large sign that read "Restore Roe," tried to look ahead to the general election in a likely rematch against Trump while he ignored the New Hampshire Democratic primary held the same day. Biden skipped the historic first-in-the-nation primary amid the state's dispute with the Democratic National Committee over the primary calendar.

"Let's remember, it was Donald Trump and his Supreme Court that ripped away the rights and freedoms of women in America," Biden said. "It'll be Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and all of you who are going to restore those rights to the women of America."

Trump's three Supreme Court appointments tilted the court to a conservative majority, leading to the overturning of the landmark of the Roe v. Wade decision in 2022, which provided a constitutional right to an abortion. Since Roe's collapse, a wave of abortion bans have passed in Republican-controlled states across the country.

Biden told his supporters, "Donald Trump is betting we won't vote on this issue" and "betting that we won't hold him responsible, either."

Amanda Zurawski, a mother from Texas, introduced Biden and talked about her personal encounter with the state's abortion restrictions when she needed the treatment after she learned her baby girl wouldn't survive the pregnancy. She said she was allowed to get an abortion only when her life was at risk. She said she nearly died.

"It was in that dark and lonely hospital room where I realized that I was actually lucky. Others wouldn't be so lucky," Zurawski said. "What I went through was nothing short of barbaric. And it didn't need to happen, but it did because of Donald Trump."

The court's overturning of Roe is widely credited with energizing Democrats in the 2022 midterms and helping them exceed expectations. The abortion issue has also been a winner for Democrats in several state referendums since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision.

"Let us be very clear about who is responsible," Harris said. "Former President Trump handpicked three Supreme Court justices because he intended for them to overturn Roe. He intended for them to take your freedoms. He is the architect of this health care crisis. And he is not done. And the extremists are not done.

"But what they need to know is that we will not allow it," she said. "The American people will not allow it."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: President Biden's abortion rally upended by protests over Gaza