(AFP) – President Joe Biden vowed to “fight like hell” for women’s reproductive rights in a reelection ad Thursday, as his team pounced on the backlash to a Republican-backed decision all but outlawing abortion in the swing state of Arizona.
“Your bodies and your decisions belong to you, not the government, not Donald Trump,” Biden says in the ad, which will be aired in Arizona during popular shows including American Idol and Saturday Night Live this month.
Part of what the campaign said was a seven-figure media blitz, the ad is aimed at key Democratic target groups — young people, women, and Latino voters.
Both sides consider abortion to be a key issue in November’s election, with Democrats in particular hoping it will drive more voters to the polls as Trump’s Republicans embrace sweeping restrictions on abortion across the nation.
“Because of Donald Trump, millions of women lost the fundamental freedom to control their own bodies, and now women’s lives are in danger because of that,” Biden says in the 30-second advert.
It was released two days after Arizona’s Supreme Court ruled that a Civil War-era ban on nearly all abortions was enforceable.
The 1864 legislation outlaws the procedure unless it is done to save the life of the woman, with doctors successfully prosecuted under the law facing five years in prison.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, said she would not enforce the “unconscionable” ruling, which has a 14-day stay on enforcement to allow for legal challenges.
But Republican lawmakers in Arizona later blocked an attempt by state Democrats to overturn the ban.
– Trump’s ambiguity –
With polls showing a majority of Americans think abortion should be legal in most cases, Biden’s team has rallied around the issue to draw in key voters ahead of this year’s tightly contested election.
The president has promised to reinstate Roe vs Wade, the half-century-old framework that established a national right to reproductive freedom, but which was overturned in a 2022 Supreme Court ruling.
The ruling was delivered after the court tilted sharply to the right thanks to three conservative justices nominated during Trump’s 2017-2021 presidency.
Trump — whose key voter base includes hard-right Evangelical Christians — has frequently boasted of his role in delivering the end to Roe vs Wade. The ruling means that individual states can set their own laws on abortion, including imposing severe restrictions.
Amid signs that many voters are turned off by the right-wing anti-abortion movement, Trump has sent mixed signals. This week he angered some allies by saying Arizona’s ruling went “too far.”
Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris, Biden’s running mate and the campaign’s most prominent voice on the abortion issue, is set to visit Arizona on Friday. – Ben Turner
© 2024 AFP
