Biden attempts to put abortion battle at center of midterms
President Joe Biden vowed to make a law enshrining nationwide abortion rights his top priority if Democrats win their uphill battle for Congress in looming midterm elections -- and to veto any Republican attempt at a national ban.
Biden's speech in Washington marked a newly intensified push by the White House to lift the party ahead of November 8, when Democrats hope to defy historical trends by retaining their razor-thin control of Congress.
Midterm votes typically see the party in the White House punished and this year the Democrats face a potential tsunami of discontent over inflation, an unpopular president, and fierce cultural wars around schools, gender issues and abortion.
In abortion, however, Biden sees a potential game-changer, with anger seething over the Supreme Court's shock decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the historic ruling from half a century ago that enshrined access to abortions nationwide.
"Women all across the country, starting in my house, lost a fundamental right," Biden said.
Citing the "chaos and the heartache" for women seeking to terminate pregnancies, Biden said that in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling abortion bans had now been put in place by Republicans in 16 states, home to 26.5 million women.
And he cast the election as setting the stage for a momentous fight next year in the new Congress.
If Republicans win, any attempt to pass a national abortion ban will be stopped at his desk, Biden said. "I'll veto it."
