Biden joins Pro-Choice Advocates to Commemorate Dobbs Decision

President Biden to Attend Pro-Abortion Rally on Roe v. Wade Anniversary

President Joe Biden will mark the first anniversary of the Supreme Court’s historic overturn of Roe v. Wade by attending a pro-abortion rally in Washington, the White House announced earlier this week.

Biden is expected to speak at the June 23 rally, just one of several pro-abortion events the White House has planned to observe the date.

Earlier this week, First Lady Jill Biden held a roundtable discussion with women who were denied abortions and Vice President Kamala Harris appeared in an hour-long MSNBC special highlighting the impacts of the Dobbs decision.

On June 24, the anniversary, Harris will travel to Charlotte, North Carolina, where she will give a speech on abortion. Her remarks will likely include criticism of the state’s new 12-week abortion ban, which became law last month after the Republican-controlled legislature overrode a veto from Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.

Prior to the high court’s June 24, 2022, ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the passage of such laws was often viewed as moot. Under the judicial precedent set by Roe, women had a legal right to abortion—at least until the point of viability—and challenges to laws that said otherwise were all but certain.

However, in Dobbs, the court found that no such right exists under the U.S. Constitution, restoring the ability of the states to regulate abortion as they see fit.

And that’s a power they have taken full advantage of. While some states have pushed for tighter restrictions on abortion, others have rushed to do the opposite, codifying additional protections for women seeking them.

All the while, the Biden administration has been clear about where it stands on the matter.

“Freedom is really under siege, particularly freedom of choice: the right of a woman to choose, the right of a woman to determine what—between she and her doctor—what she needs in her body. And now they’re going after contraception,” the president told supporters at a campaign event on June 20.

“I insist that we’re going to pass legislation in a majority of the states reinstating Roe v. Wade,” he added. “That’s the only way we can get back these rights. And it’s going to happen.”

‘Dystopian Reality’

In lockstep with the administration’s messaging, congressional Democrats marked the Dobbs anniversary in their own way throughout the week.

On June 21, Senate Democrats requested unanimous consent on four bills related to abortion and reproductive health care. Altogether, the bills aimed to enshrine a right to use birth control and contraception, ensure women can legally travel across state lines for abortions, shield abortion providers from liability for abortions performed on women from other states, and protect people’s online health and location data to prevent it being used against them.

At a press conference prior to the votes, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) decried the “dystopian reality” of post-Roe America, in which she said women are “forced to stay pregnant against their will.”

Democrats, she said, “believe women should make their own health care decisions. It should not be decided by state legislators, state courts, or the U.S. court. That should be a fundamental right of American women.”

Nonetheless, the votes were ultimately symbolic. Under unanimous consent, just one senator can block a bill’s passage, and as was expected, Republicans shot down each bill put forward.

In a statement following the votes, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he and his fellow Democrats would “fight like hell” to increase access to abortion.