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White House To Push For Abortion Access As Anniversary Of Roe. V. Wade Reversal Nears

White House To Push For Abortion Access As Anniversary Of Roe. V. Wade Reversal Nears

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TOPLINE

The White House will kick off a weeklong push to highlight the impacts of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade with a roundtable discussion Tuesday, where First Lady Jill Biden will talk with women who have been denied medical care in the year since the law’s reversal.

President Biden Hosts An Arts And Humanities Award Ceremony At The White House
U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrive for a ceremony honoring the recipients of … [+]GETTY IMAGES

KEY FACTS

Four women are expected to speak with Biden and White House Gender Policy Council Director Jennifer Klein about their healthcare experiences since Roe v. Wade—the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion–was overturned last year, NBC reported.

Vice President Kamala Harris will deliver a speech on the one-year anniversary of the Roe v. Wade reversal on Saturday in North Carolina; and she is also scheduled to sit down Tuesday with MSNBC’s Joy Reid to discuss what the administration has done to protect reproductive rights.

KEY BACKGROUND

Saturday will mark the one year anniversary of Roe v. Wade being overturned. The decision that federally protected access to abortions was decided by the Supreme Court in 1973. Almost 50 years later, in June of 2022, the decision was overturned by a vote of 6-3 with all three of President Donald Trump’s court appointees—Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh,and Amy Coney Barrett—voting to reverse the decision. The abortion issue has repeatedly been categorized as one of the hottest topics on the 2024 campaign trail as Republicans push for strict bans on a state-by-state basis and the Biden administration works to make the procedure more accessible. Major women’s groups are expected to make a unified show of support for the Biden-Harris ticket this week as the one-year anniversary of the decision approaches, NBC reported. President Donald Trump was criticized earlier this year by one of the nation’s largest anti-abortion groups when he said abortion restrictions should be left up to individual states. Rep. Gov. Ron DeSantis is staunchly anti-abortion and signed into law a bill approved by the Florida Legislature to ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Candidate and former Vice President Mike Pence has said ending abortion is “more important than politics,” and Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) has dodged questions on the issue, Politico reported.

BIG NUMBER

30%. That’s how many voters say they will only vote for a candidate who shares their views on abortion, which includes nearly half of Democratic voters (46%) and more than one-third of women voters (35%), according to a May Kaiser Family Foundation poll. About half of voters (53%) say abortion is just one of many important factors they will be weighing in their decisions during the 2024 election.