A major focus of Joe Biden's presidential campaign, the theme of abortion was once again at the heart of the American president's speech on Tuesday April 23, during a trip to Florida.
Shortly after Donald Trump, his Republican rival for the November election, left the court where he is on trial in New York for hidden payments to a former porn star, the Democrat, candidate for his re-election, took the speech at a Tampa university to accuse him of taking American women “back 160 years.”
“The voters will hold Trump accountable,” he proclaimed, taking the example of Florida where abortion will be banned beyond six weeks from May 1, or of Arizona where the justice validated an almost total ban dating from 1864. “But this is not inevitable. We can stop it. When you vote, we can stop it,” Mr. Biden said.
“One person is responsible for this nightmare.”
The Republican candidate regularly welcomes the decision taken in 2022 by the Supreme Court to overturn the Roe vs. Wade ruling which granted American women the right to abortion throughout the country, which gave the highest court in the country a resolutely conservative composition.
“One person is responsible for this nightmare. And he recognizes it and he brags about it. Donald Trump,” denounced Joe Biden. “He described [this reversal of jurisprudence] as a miracle. Maybe it comes from this bible he's trying to sell...I was almost tempted to buy it to see what's in it," the American president mocked, in reference to a lifting operation fund recently launched by its rival, who teamed up with a country music star to sell Bibles.
A practicing Catholic himself, Joe Biden has become one of the most vigorous defenders of the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion), well aware that this is one of Donald Trump's main political vulnerabilities. The Republican is trying to play the card of political compromise, torn as he is between American public opinion mainly in favor of the right to abortion and the part of his electorate from the religious right.
Decisive vote in November on abortion in Florida
Since the Supreme Court's decision, around twenty American states have banned or severely restricted access to abortion. Many conservatives now want Donald Trump, if elected, to defend a law banning abortion throughout the federal territory. But the former president did not commit to it, arguing that competence should remain that of the States.
“It’s not about state rights, but women’s rights,” Joe Biden said on Tuesday, recalling that recently, all local popular consultations on the subject had focused on the right to abortion.
He predicted that Florida would be added to the list. The State Supreme Court, while validating the ban on abortion after six weeks, in fact returned the final decision to the voters. The latter will vote in November, at the same time as the presidential and legislative elections, on an amendment guaranteeing the right to abortion in Florida.
And Joe Biden's campaign team is starting to dream of a momentum strong enough to bring the state into its hands at the time of the presidential election. “I think it’s playable,” Joe Biden assured Tuesday, although Florida voted for Donald Trump twice, in 2016 and in 2020.
The southeastern state has long been a “swing state,” likely to lean either to the right or the left in the presidential election. But he has anchored himself more clearly on the conservative side over the last few elections.
