Pro-choice activists were not thrilled with President Joe Biden's State of the Union speech that failed to dive into the topic of abortion, despite the Democratic Party going all in on the issue in the months leading up to the midterm elections.
"We commend President Biden for alluding to the abortion care crisis we're in, but it's not enough. Last year, President Biden pledged a ‘whole of government’ response to Texas' extreme abortion ban, and six months later, we need to see more concrete steps from the White House to address the crisis we are in," Morgan Hopkins, interim executive director of campaigns and strategies at All Above All, said in a statement the day after Biden's speech.
Democrats spent over $300 million campaigning on abortion before the midterm elections, but Biden spent less than 30 seconds on the topic during his national speech.
"Abortion rights advocates are not pleased with the very brief section of the #SOTU about abortion rights, which touted what the admin has already done & called on Congress to restore Roe (won't happen in this Congress). No details/pledges of future admin actions," reporter Alice Olstein wrote in a Twitter post.
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"The vice president and I are doing everything we can to protect access to reproductive health care and safeguard patient privacy. But already, more than a dozen states are enforcing extreme abortion bans," the president told the crowd.
"Congress must restore the right the Supreme Court took away last year and codify Roe v. Wade to protect every woman’s constitutional right to choose," Biden said. "Make no mistake; if Congress passes a national abortion ban, I will veto it."
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While Biden said he would veto any abortion ban brought to his desk, this was not enough in the eyes of pro-choice activists.
"These four sentences, and having to be begged to say the word abortion (once! not twice!) does not meet the moment, and is not reflective of how people showed up in droves to the polls to make their voices heard on abortion access," said Renee Bracey Sherman, executive director of Abortion Stories.
During his speech, Biden did not mention first lady Jill Biden's SOTU guest Amanda Zurawski, a Texas woman who suffered a miscarriage at 18 weeks and drew national attention from both pro-life and pro-choice groups after medical professionals reportedly did not induce her labor in fear of violating the state's pro-life law.
The Supreme Court in June overturned the 1973 ruling Roe v. Wade, giving states back the power to place restrictions on abortion.
