Biden promises to codify abortion rights if Dems win Midterms
Democrats hope to use issue to ‘energise’ voters ahead of polls

Joe Biden has pledged that the first bill he sends to Capitol Hill next year will write abortion protections into law – as long as his party takes enough seats in Congress to pass it.
In a speech to the Democratic National Committee event, the US president repeated his message that only Congress can fully restore abortion access to what it was before the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade.
In a rallying note, he added that “we’re short a handful of votes” to reinstate abortion protections at the federal level.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
AP reported that, in a move to “energise his party’s voters just three weeks ahead of the November midterms”, Biden told Democrats that “if you care about the right to choose, then you gotta vote”.
There is some evidence that the issue will “galvanise” voters, said CNN. Some 50% of registered voters in a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey said they were more motivated to vote next month, with abortion heading the reasons, for Democratic voters.
Women are especially motivated: about three in five women aged between 18 and 49 said they are more likely to head to the polls, citing the overturning of Roe vs. Wade as motivation.
However, said The New York Times, the president’s focus on abortion “reflects the anxiety among Democrats that the issue of abortion is losing resonance with voters” after a New York Times/Siena poll found that the economy was a “far more important issue to voters”.
Meanwhile, Biden’s opponents are also upping the ante, said Politico. In response to Biden’s speech, anti-abortion groups urged Republican candidates, “many of whom have stayed quiet on the issue in recent months amid the political fall-out from the Supreme Court ruling,” to “keep going on offence”.
“It is time for Americans to hold pro-abortion politicians accountable,” said Jeanne Mancini, the president of March for Life, an anti-abortion group.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.
-
NY's Hochul vows response to Texas gerrymander
Speed Read Gov. Kathy Hochul has promised to play ball with redistricting that favors the Democrats
-
August 5 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Tuesday's political cartoons include an unflattering jobs report, Democrat weakness, and the minimum wage
-
Why is the world so divided over plastics?
Today's Big Question UN negotiations on first global plastic treaty are at stake, as fossil fuel companies, petrostates and plastic industry work to resist a legal cap on production
-
NY's Hochul vows response to Texas gerrymander
Speed Read Gov. Kathy Hochul has promised to play ball with redistricting that favors the Democrats
-
Texas Democrats exit state to block redistricting vote
Speed Read More than 51 legislators fled the state in protest of the GOP's plan to redraw congressional districts
-
'Fossil-fired grids have provided a cautionary tale'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Why is the Democratic Party's favorability rating so low?
Talking Points Voters do not like Republican policies. They like Democrats even less.
-
Judge halts GOP defunding of Planned Parenthood
Speed Read The Trump administration can't withhold Medicaid funds from Planned Parenthood, said the ruling
-
Democrats: The 2028 race has begun
Feature Democratic primaries have already kicked off in South Carolina
-
Gavin Newsom mulls California redistricting to counter Texas gerrymandering
TALKING POINTS A controversial plan has become a major flashpoint among Democrats struggling for traction in the Trump era
-
What difference will the 'historic' UK-Germany treaty make?
Today's Big Question Europe's two biggest economies sign first treaty since WWII, underscoring 'triangle alliance' with France amid growing Russian threat and US distance