Can Biden lead the fight in a post-Roe America?
President is an uneasy champion of abortion
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court’s decision to end the constitutional right to an abortion in the United States after nearly 50 years has set in motion a generational struggle over Republican efforts to ban the procedure in states across the country.
But inside the West Wing, President Biden has made it clear that he is uncomfortable even using the word abortion, according to current and former advisers. In speeches and public statements, he prefers to use the word sparingly, focusing instead on broader phrases, such as “reproductive health” and “the right to choose,” that might resonate more widely with the public.
Biden, a practicing Catholic who has drawn on his faith to shape his political identity, is now being called on to lead a fight he spent decades sidestepping — and many abortion rights advocates worry that he may not be the right messenger for the moment.
Once an outright critic of abortion rights and later a committed but quiet defender of them, Biden has a history that gives activists pause.
“This is not necessarily the guy that I am sure most activists wanted in the seat when this happened,” said Jamie Manson, president of Catholics for Choice, referring to the court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade. “It’s unfortunate because he has so much power and we need him to really get out of his comfort zone.”
For five decades, Biden has talked openly about the power of his religion, portraying himself as an advocate for workers and a warrior for social justice. His faith also had guided him toward what he once called a “middle of the road” approach to abortion — essentially, not voting to limit abortion, but not voting to fund it either.
And like other Democrats of his generation, Biden used the existence of Roe v. Wade’s protections to avoid pushing for legislation that might have enshrined the ruling into federal law.
Now, a growing chorus of women’s groups, progressive Democrats, and abortion rights activists see the decision to overturn Roe as an indictment of that middle-ground approach, saying Democrats like Biden have tiptoed too carefully around the issue for years.
The Supreme Court’s decision, they say, must be met with an equally fierce legal, political, and rhetorical response. And after a decisive vote this past week to defend abortion rights in conservative Kansas, many Democrats see this as the moment to run more assertively on the issue.
Biden’s advisers say that his views on abortion have changed over time and that he is committed to abortion rights. But Biden’s history on abortion — informed by his religion and the Democratic Party’s years of careful political calculations — has left him struggling to live up to the expectations of those in his party who want a new strategy and a new energy.
“Yes, there are limits to executive branch power, there are limits to what the president can do,” said Andrea Miller, president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health. “But this just feels like you’ve got to push the boundaries right now. This is a time to pull out all the stops. This is a time to take risks.”
Biden has often said that his views on abortion — and the proper role for government to play in regulating it — are the result of his faith. In 1982, when he voted in favor of a constitutional amendment pushed by Republicans to allow individual states to overturn Roe v. Wade, he said: “I’m probably a victim, or a product, however you want to phrase it, of my background.”
The Catholic Church considers human life to begin at conception and says that “the intentional killing of a human being living in the womb” is always immoral. Church teachings generally allow for “indirect” abortions when a medical procedure needed for another lifesaving reason results in the death of a fetus. But many Catholics disagree with the church’s official position.