On Friday, President Joe Biden gave remarks to do with his executive order doubling down on his administration's support for abortion. As Katie highlighted about the announcement of the executive order, a fact-sheet emphasized the administration's support for medication abortion as well as the support for women who will travel to other states to obtain an abortion. This includes allowing federal employees to use taxpayer funds to travel for such abortions.
There were many memorable moments throughout the president's remarks, including when he leaned in to read from the teleprompter the directive to "repeat the line," as Matt highlighted.
The substance of Biden's remarks, though, was also problematic. The president read from the majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson, which overturned Roe v. Wade. "Women are not without electoral or political power. It is noteworthy that the percentage of women who register to vote and cast ballots is consistently higher than the percentage of men who do so," was the portion he read.
In the sentence just before that, though, the opinion read that "Our decision returns the issue of abortion to those legislative bodies, and it allows women on both sides of the abortion issue to seek to affect the legislative process by influencing public opinion, lobbying legislators, voting, and running for office."
No matter how much pro-abortion Democrats throw tantrums and claim otherwise, the Court was explaining how it's making the abortion issue more democratic.
Biden, during his remarks on Friday, like many other pro-abortion Democrats, emphasized that the decision "wasn’t about the Constitution or the law." He went on to say that "what we’re witnessing wasn’t a constitutional judgment. It was an exercise in raw political power."
The point the Court was making was that it is now on voters, including and especially women, who vote more than men, to decide their abortion laws.
Even Biden acknowledged what the Court was saying, though the Court, unlike Biden, did not appear to be making a judgment as to if women voted based on pro-life or pro-abortion policies.
As Biden said after quoting the opinion:
That’s another way of saying that you, the women of America, can determine the outcome of this issue.
I don’t think the Court or, for that matter, the Republicans who for decades have pushed their extreme agenda have a clue about the power of American women. But they’re about to find out, in my view.
It’s my hope and strong belief that women will, in fact, turn out in record numbers to reclaim the rights that have taken from them by the Court.
And let me be clear: While I wish it had not come to this, this is the fastest route available. I’m just stating a basic, fundamental notion.
The fastest way to restore Woe — Roe is to pass a national law codifying Roe, which I will sign immediately upon its passage at my desk.
This part of his speech was Biden doubling down on calling for the passage of the Women's Health Protection Act (WHPA), which, despite what Biden claims, will not merely codify Roe, but will expand it. The legislation will not merely create a so-called right to an abortion at the federal level, but it will invalidate pro-life laws that have passed at the state level.
As Biden said earlier in his speech:
But I also made it clear, based on the reasoning of the Court, there is no constitutional right to choose. Only the way — the only way to fulfill and restore that right for women in this country is by voting, by exercising the power at the ballot box.
Let me explain. We need two additional pro-choice senators and a pro-choice House to codify Roe as federal law. Your vote can make that a reality.
The president even recently called for ending the filibuster in order to pass the WHPA, but that won't even help. Not only has the legislation failed to get past the filibuster in the Senate, it's failed to even get a majority in the body. Even the senators who support codifying Roe, won't sign on since they acknowledge it goes too far.
Biden may be overestimating the likelihood that voters, including women, will vote based on abortion, and vote because they support extreme legislation such as the WHPA.
As I highlighted earlier in the week, Democrats cannot depend on the abortion issue to help them win the midterms, and thus get the WHPA passed. Voters are not concerned with abortion as they are with economic issues, like inflation, cost of living, and gas prices, which Biden and the Democrats are not faring well on.
Further, very few voters are on board with the Democratic Party's position of abortion throughout all nine months for any reason without legal limit and paid for by taxpayers. While polls consistently find that a majority opposes the overturning of Roe, this is likely because they do not understand the decision. That's because polls also find that voters prefer the states to decide abortion laws, rather than unelected judges, meaning they would actually support overturning the decision.
A recent poll from Harvard CAPS/Harris, was particularly illustrative. This is not just when it comes to how inflation is regarded as a more important issue, as are numerous others, or because only 10 percent of respondents believe in legal abortion for all nine months. It's also particularly illustrative because it goes against Biden's narrative of encouraging women to vote so they'll vote for pro-abortion Democrats.
The poll found that 75 percent of women--compared to 69 percent of men--think states should allow for abortion no more than 15 weeks. In contrast, 25 percent of women--compared to 31 percent of men--think states should allow for abortions at 23 weeks or later.
Polling from May of this year that was provided to Townhall by Richard Baris, the director of Big Poll Data, also consistently found that women respondents chose more pro-life responses than men. Tellingly, this even included women who were identified as "pro-choice" versus men who were identified in the same way.
It's also worth highlighting how many pro-life organizations are run by women. This includes Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life/Students for Life Action, Lila Rose of Live Action, Catherine Glenn Foster of Americans United for Life, many staff at the National Right to Life Committee, and Marjorie Dannenfelser of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
Bill Maher, as Katie highlighted in May, shared during one of his shows at the time that "I learned that most people who are pro-life are women. Did not know that."
Further, Republicans are largely predicted to win control of the U.S. House of Representatives and may even win control of the U.S. Senate as well.