President Biden jetted to Florida Tuesday to denounce a Republican-backed abortion ban that goes into effect next week and back an abortion-rights referendum on the fall ballot.
With Democrats smelling political blood, Biden hit out at former President Trump and the GOP for pushing ever-stricter abortion restrictions and bans since the conservative-dominated Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
“One person is responsible for this nightmare: Donald Trump,” Biden said. We are going to hold him accountable.”
Biden trashed Trump for saying bans enacted by states like Florida mean the system is working “brilliantly.”
“This isn’t about state’s rights. It’s about women’s rights,” Biden said as a crowd chanted, “four more years.” He added: “Don’t mess with the women of America.”
The speech in Tampa put Biden in the epicenter of one of two critical battlegrounds in the abortion wars. The Sunshine State’s new ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy goes into effect May 1, but voters will have the chance to reinstate the protections of Roe in a constitutional amendment up for a vote in the November general election.
The other flashpoint state is Arizona, where the right-wing state supreme court allowed a near-total ban enacted in 1864 to go into effect.
Democrats believe voter anger at the Republican-backed restrictions will hand them wins up and down the ballot, as it has done several times in red states and blue since the Supreme Court’s unpopular 2022 decision.
Organizers of the Florida abortion ballot measure, which requires 60% to pass, say they collected nearly 1.5 million signatures to put the issue before voters.
About 35% were from either registered Republican voters or those not affiliated with a party, highlighting the political peril for the GOP.
Trump called the six-week ban “terrible” when he was campaigning against Gov. Ron DeSantis, the architect of the measure. But he has dodged questions about whether he will oppose or support the ballot measure when he casts his ballot in Florida.
Abortion-rights supporters have won every time the issue has been put before voters, including in solidly conservative states such as Kansas, Kentucky and Ohio.
The issue has become even more salient for voters as conservatives push measures that could outlaw some forms of contraception, medication abortion and in-vitro fertilization.
In Arizona, Republicans have been deeply split by the Civil War-era bill, with some lawmakers and Trump saying it goes too far. But so far, they have rejected efforts to repeal it.
Abortion rights advocates plan a ballot measure in Arizona too, ensuring Democrats can use the issue to mobilize supporters in the state that is crucial for Trump’s effort to beat Biden for the White House.