President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign accused the presumptive Republican nominee and former president Donald Trump of “scrambling” on the issue of abortion after Trump announced that he supports states making their own abortion laws.
“Trump is scrambling,” Biden said, according to the campaign statement. “He’s worried that since he’s the one responsible for overturning Roe, the voters will hold him accountable in 2024.”
“Well, I have news for Donald: They will,” the statement continued. “America was built on personal freedom and liberty. So, there is nothing more un-American than having our personal freedoms taken away. And that is what Donald Trump has done.”
These comments from the Biden campaign came shortly after Trump posted a video on Truth Social in which he said “the states will determine [abortion policies] by vote or legislation” and “this is all about the will of the people.” The former president said “now it’s up to the states to do the right thing.”
“Many states will be different,” Trump said. “Many will have a different number of weeks, or some will have more conservative [policies] than others, and that’s what they will be.”
Trump’s statement also accused the Democratic Party of being extreme on abortion: “[They] are the radical ones on this position because they support abortion up to and even beyond the ninth month.”
Biden calls for legal abortion nationwide
Biden’s statement reaffirmed his administration’s support for codifying into law the abortion rules that were in place under the now-defunct Roe v. Wade ruling. Such a law would prohibit states from enacting most pro-life policies and mandate legal abortion nationwide.
“As a fundamental right, it didn’t matter where you lived,” Biden said. “It was granted to you as an American, not as a resident of any state. Generations of women had come to rely on that right.”
Although Trump has never publicly backed a nationwide ban on abortion, the Biden campaign claimed that Republicans would pass “a national abortion ban” and that “Trump will sign it into law.”
Biden has become a staunch supporter of taxpayer-funded abortion nationwide since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. In his 2025 budget proposal, Biden asked Congress to enshrine the former abortion standards into law and to repeal the law that prohibits federal agencies from directly funding abortion. He also requested more money for a program that has funneled millions of dollars into Planned Parenthood abortion facilities.
The Biden campaign has run several pro-abortion advertisements during the election that criticized Trump for appointing three Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade. The campaign also promotes federal laws that would block states from enacting pro-life laws.
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A young woman holds a pro-life sign during a rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on June 24, 2023, marking the first anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. / Joseph Portolano/CNA
Washington D.C., Jun 25, 2023 / 06:40 am (CNA).
Marking the first anniversary of Roe being overturned, a group of pro-life leaders rallied hundreds to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial Saturday with the message that they were united around the fight for full, legal protection for the unborn from the moment of conception in all 50 states.
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, told those gathered on a sunny, hot summer day that while she celebrated the 25 states that have passed strong pro-life laws, “we are in fact living in a divided states of America” where “a person’s location determines if they will survive the abortion gauntlet as we did.”
Hawkins said the country must become “an America where every human being is recognized as the unrepeatable person as they are with equal rights and equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed, not because of what state their mother resides in or if they are perceived to be convenient or the circumstances of their conception.”
Hawkins told CNA that pro-life leaders are uniting around the belief “that every human being is a human person at conception” and that the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal justice clauses should be equally applied to persons in the womb.
“At a very minimum if you’re running for federal office, you should be able to acknowledge that abortion is a federal issue,” she said. “We want to see every presidential contender join with us to acknowledge what is so clearly written in the Fourteenth Amendment: that all human beings are human persons and deserve equal protection of our laws.”
Lila Rose, president of the pro-life group Live Action, called the Fourteenth Amendment “one of the most beautiful notes in our national song” and lamented that “when it comes to preborn children we have failed to extend these protections.”
Rose called it a “tragic contradiction” that “while our society celebrates advancements in prenatal care and technology, we simultaneously deny personhood and rights, the personhood and rights of these very same children. It is inconceivable that we would selectively deny these rights to one group of human beings solely based on their location: the womb.”
Republican presidential candidate and former Vice President Mike Pence, who recently called on his fellow GOP presidential candidates to join him in backing a “minimum” nationwide 15-week abortion limit, made an appearance at the rally.
“As we celebrate this anniversary, let us here resolve that we will work and we will pray as never before to advance the cause of life in the laws of the land in every state in America. That we will support women in crisis pregnancies with resources and support for their care, for the unborn, and for the newborn as never before,” Pence said.
“We stand for the babies and their unalienable right to life,” he said, pledging that he and his family “will never rest and never relent until we restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law in every state in the land.”
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-life America, shared words of advice for the growing list of 2024 presidential candidates: “Get your act together. Figure out what you’re for and advance it. Don’t wait,” she urged.
“We have consensus in this country,” she added. “Start with that and be the president you’re called to be in justice and love for moms and justice and love for their babies.” Consistent Gallup polling shows that the majority of Americans would prefer to limit abortion to the first three months of pregnancy.
There were many young people in the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial, including Katriel Nyman, a 17-year-old from Washington state who is with Students for Life Tri-Cities. She told CNA that it was “really encouraging to see a bunch of people who believe in rights from conception.”
She said she’d “like to see more pro-lifers continue to persevere through this” post-Dobbs fight because “even if abortion isn’t legal in your state, you should be fighting for the rights of infants that are soon to be born in other states.”
Sameerah Munshi, a recent graduate of Brown University who is interning with the Religious Freedom Institute, held a sign with a verse from the Quran about the sanctity of life that read “We have dignified the children of Adam.”
She told CNA that she wanted to make her voice heard as a Muslim who believes, based on her faith, that abortion is wrong in most cases. She said many Muslims followers feel, as she does, that life begins “in the first couple weeks after conception.”
Munshi said that in the year since the Dobbs decision, “a lot of people that I know who don’t have strong opinions on abortion have been coming out either in favor or against” abortion. She sees it as valuable that there’s more discourse about the abortion issue and people are “coming to more conclusions for themselves as opposed to maybe rhetoric that they’ve seen in the news or rhetoric that they feel has been a part of their political platform.”
Jessica Newell, a Catholic student who is interning with Live Action and entering her third year at Coastal Carolina University, told CNA that “it’s so important for people who are indoctrinated by this culture to learn the truth about biology and the truth about God and that they’re made in the image of God.”
She emphasized that the pro-life movement still has so much to do and part of that work is “letting people know that they’re loved, that is a big step in changing the culture to a culture of life.”
Melissa Ohden, who survived a saline-infusion abortion at 31 weeks gestation, stood at the rally alongside her oldest daughter Olivia, 15, and a sign which read “Babies survive abortions. I am one of them.”
“This was a very personal thing for Roe to be overturned,” she told CNA, “It is a day that we can celebrate, but it has not been a chance to pause, take our breath, it has been a time of continuing to hit the ground running.”
In her work heading the Abortion Survivors Network, Ohden said that since the Dobbs decision she’s heard from “more women than ever reaching out to us after their chemical abortions have failed.” She said it’s important to reach moms who are vulnerable to chemical abortions which make up the majority of abortions in the country.
Ohden said that since Dobbs the pro-life movement “has continued to be the side that is providing resources and support whether it’s in communities, at the state level, pushing for federal policy that supports mothers and children and families in a greater way.”
Her daughter Olivia said it was “amazing” to be at the rally with her mom and called the issue an emotional one because “people like my mom should be protected no matter who they are, where they are.”
Arlington, Va., Oct 29, 2018 / 10:30 am (CNA).- In a statement released last Wednesday and repeated at Masses over the weekend, Bishop Michael Burbidge of the Diocese of Arlington and Bishop Barry C. Knestout of the Diocese of Richmond pledged that the… […]
CNA Staff, Apr 1, 2021 / 12:00 am (CNA).- The Divine Mercy Novena begins tomorrow, Good Friday.Our Blessed Lord gave Sr. Faustina (for herself only initially) a Novena to His Mercy. She was to start it on Good Friday, that wonderful day when Christ fir… […]
10 Comments
Trump is actually being consistent with the Dobbs Decision. The Supreme Court, given its current makeup, seems to think that abortion is an issue for the states. A national ban would not likely pass muster with this Court.
Pres. Trump is saying that abortion’s availability should be decided by the States, not the Federal Government or the Supreme Court.
That comment has the potential for evil, as there will be states who will permit legal abortion for any reason right up through 9 months of gestation. But it also has the potential for good, as there will also be states, in all likelihood, many states, who ban abortion entirely or at least place very stringent limitations on who can receive an abortion, taking into account fetal age.
Pres. Biden has made it clear that abortion should be available in EVERY STATE for EVERY WOMAN for EVERY REASON and has also hinted that opposition to this could possibly be an appropriate reason to ban certain pro-life medical professionals and hospitals from continuing to offer medical care.
Which man has proposed the “greater evil?”
We need to be wise when we vote for POTUS in 2024. Voting for a third-party candidate who doesn’t have a chance of winning will, barring divine and miraculous intervention from God (which I hope will happen!) most likely mean re-electing Pres. Biden, who has made it clear that legal abortion for any reason in any state is near the top of his “”Must Do” list. I don’t know how Christians can live with the knowledge that their 3rd Party vote enabled such evil to happen in our country.
OK … so you’re fine with evil, as long as you can point to a greater evil than the one you have chosen?
That’s how we got here. Your two parties have each told themselves that the other guy’s evils were worse, whereas THEIR evil choices were necessary and minimal.
If you sell your soul, maybe you can get Trump into office. Even if it works, though, it won’t be worth it — not for you, and not for this country.
Lo thou trustest upon this broken staff of a reed, upon Egypt: upon which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharao king or Egypt to all that trust in him.
It is uncharitable and false to accuse someone of being fine with evil when they are acting to minimize it the best way they know how.
The only way to vote for someone who is NOT the lesser of two evils is to write in Jesus. But I doubt He’d serve even if elected. Should everyone who is pro-life do so anyway, and guarantee that the only *effective* voters are pro-murder?
Universally condemning an evil is a good thing. Losing over 600,000 lives wasn’t the best way to end it. Other nations were able to accomplish the same thing without bloodshed or civil war.
State by state is better than where we were with Roe.
Suppose a man has decided to climb the north face of the Eiger. Halfway up, he realizes that this is stupidly dangerous and dangerously stupid, and he wishes he were back at the bottom again. Well, there’s a quick and easy way to get back to the bottom! Simply pushing himself off the cliff face, however, comes with some undesirable consequences. The best option for him is to spend several hours of hard, careful work to bring himself SAFELY back to the bottom. It might seem that just remaining where he is would be a compromise that avoids the immediate consequences of jumping down and the care and effort of climbing down, and it might well be necessary for a few moments of rest and planning. A climber who advocates it as an ideal, final solution, however, has taken leave of his senses.
I think Mr. Trump managed to take some wind out of the Democrat scare campaign.
There may very well be a federal limit on feticides one day & Donald Trump in office would make that more likely than another Biden administration would. But for now Mr. Trump’s holding his cards closely.
Trump is actually being consistent with the Dobbs Decision. The Supreme Court, given its current makeup, seems to think that abortion is an issue for the states. A national ban would not likely pass muster with this Court.
I wonder if he will also say that each state should determine for itself whether slavery should be permitted or not?
Some evils should be universally condemned.
We have two “evils” happening here.
Pres. Trump is saying that abortion’s availability should be decided by the States, not the Federal Government or the Supreme Court.
That comment has the potential for evil, as there will be states who will permit legal abortion for any reason right up through 9 months of gestation. But it also has the potential for good, as there will also be states, in all likelihood, many states, who ban abortion entirely or at least place very stringent limitations on who can receive an abortion, taking into account fetal age.
Pres. Biden has made it clear that abortion should be available in EVERY STATE for EVERY WOMAN for EVERY REASON and has also hinted that opposition to this could possibly be an appropriate reason to ban certain pro-life medical professionals and hospitals from continuing to offer medical care.
Which man has proposed the “greater evil?”
We need to be wise when we vote for POTUS in 2024. Voting for a third-party candidate who doesn’t have a chance of winning will, barring divine and miraculous intervention from God (which I hope will happen!) most likely mean re-electing Pres. Biden, who has made it clear that legal abortion for any reason in any state is near the top of his “”Must Do” list. I don’t know how Christians can live with the knowledge that their 3rd Party vote enabled such evil to happen in our country.
OK … so you’re fine with evil, as long as you can point to a greater evil than the one you have chosen?
That’s how we got here. Your two parties have each told themselves that the other guy’s evils were worse, whereas THEIR evil choices were necessary and minimal.
If you sell your soul, maybe you can get Trump into office. Even if it works, though, it won’t be worth it — not for you, and not for this country.
Lo thou trustest upon this broken staff of a reed, upon Egypt: upon which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharao king or Egypt to all that trust in him.
It is uncharitable and false to accuse someone of being fine with evil when they are acting to minimize it the best way they know how.
The only way to vote for someone who is NOT the lesser of two evils is to write in Jesus. But I doubt He’d serve even if elected. Should everyone who is pro-life do so anyway, and guarantee that the only *effective* voters are pro-murder?
Universally condemning an evil is a good thing. Losing over 600,000 lives wasn’t the best way to end it. Other nations were able to accomplish the same thing without bloodshed or civil war.
State by state is better than where we were with Roe.
Suppose a man has decided to climb the north face of the Eiger. Halfway up, he realizes that this is stupidly dangerous and dangerously stupid, and he wishes he were back at the bottom again. Well, there’s a quick and easy way to get back to the bottom! Simply pushing himself off the cliff face, however, comes with some undesirable consequences. The best option for him is to spend several hours of hard, careful work to bring himself SAFELY back to the bottom. It might seem that just remaining where he is would be a compromise that avoids the immediate consequences of jumping down and the care and effort of climbing down, and it might well be necessary for a few moments of rest and planning. A climber who advocates it as an ideal, final solution, however, has taken leave of his senses.
It seems to me that Trump is right on this. Maybe that is why Biden is coming on so strong with his ridiculing/demonization of Trump.
1) Pathetic
2) Predictable
Next question.
I think Mr. Trump managed to take some wind out of the Democrat scare campaign.
There may very well be a federal limit on feticides one day & Donald Trump in office would make that more likely than another Biden administration would. But for now Mr. Trump’s holding his cards closely.