Joe Biden promised on Tuesday, October 18, that the first law on the agenda of the United States Congress, in the event of a Democratic victory in the midterm elections, would guarantee the right to abortion. “And if Congress passes it, I will sign it in January”continued the American president, pledging if not to ask his « veto » in the event that the Republicans win the November 8 ballot and ban the right to abortion at the federal level.
Three weeks before the mid-term elections, Joe Biden is trying to remobilize Americans around the right to abortion. Despite growing dissatisfaction with inflation and the risk of recession undermining his party’s chances of such success, the Democratic president is banking on the outrage sparked by the Supreme Court’s about-face on abortion to fill up the voices left and center.
On June 24, the high court reversed the so-called “Roe vs Wade” who, since 1973, granted American women the right to abortion nationwide.
“Remember how you felt that day (…)anger, worry, disbelief”launched Joe Biden during a speech before the Democratic Party in Washington, denouncing ” chaos “ followed this decision. “In four months, laws prohibiting abortion have come into effect in sixteen states”he continued, and “the elected Republicans of Congress have gone further” promising to adopt such a ban at the federal level if they took control of Congress after the November 8 election.
“If such a law were to be adopted in the years to come, I would veto it”, thundered the tenant of the White House. According to him, the best way “to stop these extremist laws” would nevertheless be to pass a law at the federal level “to engrave in marble Roe vs Wade once and for all”. “For the moment, we are missing a few voices”he acknowledged, calling on voters to send more elected Democrats to the Senate and the House of Representatives. “If you do, I promise you the first piece of legislation I send to Congress will be to codify Roe”he said. “And as soon as Congress passes it, I will sign it, in January. »
The economy, priority of the Americans
A bill to this effect has already been passed by the Democratic majority of the House of Representatives. The text is slipping in the Senate, where a qualified majority of 60% would be needed to adopt it because of the filibusterprocedural mechanism.
Joe Biden has long been loath to change this rule meant to encourage compromise between the two major parties. At the end of June, he said he was ready to make a « exception » and to lift it to guarantee the right of American women to have an abortion, but two of the fifty Democratic senators do not want to touch the filibuster. Since the upper house has 100 elected members, the Democrats would have to win two new seats to change the situation, while maintaining their majority in the lower house.
The goal seems very ambitious, especially since midterm elections are usually an opportunity to punish the president’s party. The Democrats were however galvanized by a referendum organized at the beginning of August in the very conservative State of Kansas, where the voters mobilized massively to reject a constitutional amendment hostile to abortion.
However, polls show that abortion is no longer the priority of Americans. About 26% of respondents cite the economy as their top concern; 18%, inflation; abortion is only for 5% of them, according to a survey published this week by the research institute of Siena University with the New York Times.