President Joe Biden is clearly pinning his hopes for re-election on the issue of abortion, and he used it to cudgel the Supreme Court justices attending his State of the Union address Thursday night.
Six justices were present: Chief Justice John Roberts along with conservative Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, as well as liberal Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett did not attend.
In June 2022, by a 6-3 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Court ruled the Constitution did not address the issue of abortion, returning the matter to the states to decide.
The conservative justices made up the six that overturned Roe v. Wade.
Biden became very animated when addressing the subject.
“In its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade,” the president said, “the Supreme Court wrote the following.” Biden then broke off mid-sentence and turned to the justices in attendance.
“With all due respect, justices — women are not without electoral … or political power,” he said, drawing cheers from the Democratic side of the chamber.
“You’re about to realize just how much,” Biden added. Was that a threat to pack the court or just demagoguery? Maybe both.
Biden continued, “Clearly those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade have no clue about the power of women, but they found out when reproductive freedom was on the ballot.”
He then stumbled over some words, but managed to get out: “We won in 2022 [on the issue]…and we’ll win again in 2024.”
Ballot initiatives placing the right to have an abortion in state constitutions have succeeded, even in red states like Iowa and Kansas.
In other words, the voters and not the courts are deciding the matter.
Biden threw the red herring of “if Republicans gain control of Congress, they’ll ban abortion nationwide”—but the party is not running on that, and Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for president, is not, either.
Biden was demagoguing the abortion issue in his State of the Union speech because he’s hoping it would drive up his support among women.
Voters are more sophisticated than that, and most of them think the nation is on the wrong track under his leadership.
That will be the most determinative factor in November.
via westernjournal
