Reproductive rights take center stage during Biden’s State of the Union address

Abortion and reproductive rights took center stage at the 2024 State of the Union, as President Joe Biden sought to overcome concerns about his re-election chances by emphasizing an issue that has energized voters again and again since the overturning of Roe v Wade.

“My predecessor took office determined to see Roe v Wade overturned and he brags about it,” said Biden, referring to former president Donald Trump, his presumptive rival for the presidency. “Look at the chaos that has resulted.”

Biden has in large part pinned his hopes for re-election on the passions stirred by threats toabortion rights and, in particular, onhisvice-president, Kamala Harris, who has embarked on a nationwide tour to trumpet the threat to reproductive freedom posed by another Trump presidency. The demise of Roe, which was overturned with the help of three justices appointed by Trump, has led more than a dozen states to enact near-total abortion bans. Many do not have exceptions for rape or incest, and doctors across the country have said that exceptions for cases of medical emergencies are unworkable in practice, prompting a stream of high-profile cases of women needing to flee their home states for life-saving medical care.

A number of guests attending this year’s State of the Union address have ties to post-Roe disputes over reproductive rights that are now roiling the US. The first lady, Jill Biden, invited Kate Cox, a Texas woman who had to leave her the state for an emergencyabortion, as well as LaTorya Beasley, an Alabama woman whose in vitro fertilization treatment was halted after the state supreme court ruled that frozen embryos are “extrauterine children”. Abortion foes who believe life begins at fertilization have long worked to