White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki refused to confirm on Thursday whether President Joe Biden supports abortion until the moment of birth.
During an exchange with Fox News reporter Peter Doocy, Psaki referred repeatedly to Biden’s “official position” on abortion — neglecting to clarify the commander-in-chief’s true position.
“The President’s position on choice has evolved over time, so just checking for his official position. Does he support any limits on abortion right now?” Doocy asked.
“Peter, the President has … talked about his position many times,” Psaki replied. “He supports the right of a woman to make choices about her own body with her doctor.”
“But I know that one of the Democrats that he endorsed and who won their primary this week, Tim Ryan, said yesterday that he does not support any limits on abortion,” Doocy pressed. “Is that where the President’s thinking is now?”
“The President has stated his view many times,” Psaki repeated.
“So does the President support abortion up until the moment of birth?” Doocy asked.
“The President has spoken about this many times, Peter,” Psaki said for a third time. “And I would refer you to his own comments about abortion and a woman’s right to choose and make decisions about her body with her doctor, which is what any of those women would do.”
As Doocy noted, President Biden has pivoted on the issue of abortion during his decades in national politics. In December 1981, Biden — then a member of the United States Senate from Delaware — proposed a constitutional amendment that would have allowed individual states to overturn Roe v. Wade.
During his 2020 presidential campaign, however, Biden ran on the platform of codifying Roe into federal law. After Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was leaked to Politico, confirming that the Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe, Biden issued a statement calling on “our nation’s elected officials at all levels of government to protect a woman’s right to choose.”
“At the federal level, we will need more pro-choice Senators and a pro-choice majority in the House to adopt legislation that codifies Roe, which I will work to pass and sign into law,” he continued.
Other Democrats are echoing Biden’s position. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Thursday that Senate Democrats were planning to force a vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would codify Roe. The legislation failed by a 46 to 48 margin as recently as February, however.
Meanwhile, state lawmakers are approving bills that would ban abortion. In particular, the Louisiana House of Representatives’ criminal justice committee advanced a bill on Wednesday that would immediately abolish and criminalize abortion.
The Abolition of Abortion in Louisiana Act of 2022 ensures “the right to life and equal protection of the laws to all unborn children from the moment of fertilization by protecting them by the same laws protecting other human beings.” The bill would also “treat as void” any federal laws or court rulings — namely, Roe and its judicial progeny — that “deprive an unborn child of the right to life or prohibit the equal protection of such right,” meaning that the bill would ban abortion even if Roe remains intact.