Biden to defend abortion access in high-profile speech in Trump’s home state of Florida

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden will travel to Tampa, Florida, on Tuesday to deliver remarks on abortion access and “reproductive freedoms” one week before the state’s six-week ban goes into effect — his latest high-profile effort to spotlight the issue as his general election fight against former President Donald Trump gears up.

Aides say Biden’s remarks will tie access to contraception, to in vitro fertilization and to abortion to the results of the looming 2024 election, painting a picture of what’s at stake this cycle.

“Abortion bans are now a voting issue in battleground states across the country. That will decide this election,” said Jen Cox, a Biden campaign adviser in Arizona, where abortion is also roiling politics after a court ruling revived a Civil War-era ban.

Biden campaign spokesman Michael Tyler joined Cox on a call with reporters ahead of Biden’s trip to Florida, which will include multiple stops including a speech.

“The entire point … is for the president to forcefully advocate for reproductive freedom and call out Donald Trump’s abortion bans as he’s been doing since Roe [v. Wade] was overturned,” Tyler said when asked if Biden will say the word “abortion.”

The Biden campaign has increasingly attacked Trump over the issue of abortion, which the former president has said should be left to the states while celebrating his role in ending Roe’s national protections for access.

Trump also insists he will not sign a national abortion ban if elected, reversing an earlier promise.

“We gave it back to the states and the states are working very brilliantly, in some cases conservative, in some cases not conservative, but they’re working,” he said earlier this month. “And it’s working the way it’s supposed to.”

As proposed abortion initiatives to expand or protect access are set to appear on several state ballots this November, including in Arizona, Florida and Nevada, the Biden campaign has emphasized what they see as the threat Republicans pose to allowing abortions.

Since the end of Roe two years ago, other abortion ballot measures have won out in both red and blue states and Democrats believe the issue is galvanizing to their base and crucial swing voters.

Tuesday’s remarks from Biden in Florida will be notable, however, given his complicated relationship with the issue of abortion because of his personal faith as a devout Catholic.

“I’m not big on abortion,” he acknowledged last year. “But guess what? Roe v. Wade got it right. Roe v. Wade [generally allowing abortions through the second trimester] cut in a place where the vast majority of religions have reached agreement.”

Other Democrats have urged Biden to be more full-throated.

During an interview in January on CBS’ Face The Nation, when asked if Biden needs to talk about abortion more, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said, “I think it would be good if he did.”

Instead, the president has leaned heavily on Vice President Kamala Harris to be the campaign’s primary messenger.

She launched a “Reproductive Freedom Tour” in January and quickly traveled to Arizona this month after the state’s Supreme Court ruling upholding the 160-year-old, near-total abortion ban.

Biden’s trip to Florida on Tuesday also underscores Democrats’ tentative optimism that they could retake the state this November after being defeated in 2020 and 2016 — at the same time that Republicans have seen a slew of notable wins there, including the rise of Gov. Ron DeSantis.

During a press call with reporters on Monday, the Biden campaign emphasized the success Democrats have had with abortion access on the ballot.

“Whenever abortion rights have been on the ballot, they’ve won,” Michael Tyler, communication director for the Biden-Harris campaign, said on the call. “In November, Florida will have a referendum on the ballot and Arizona and Nevada are likely to as well. The last time there was an abortion referendum on the ballot in 2012, President [Barack] Obama won the state. So, with our enormous financial advantage, the Biden-Harris campaign can afford to invest in many paths to victory and that includes Florida.”

Republicans who spoke with ABC News have played that down, pointing to the many local races the GOP has been winning and Democrats’ past messaging on abortion in elections they lost.

Referring to the six-week ban, Evan Power, the chair of the Florida GOP, said that “this is what the voters sent their legislators to Tallahassee to deliver on and they did deliver on it. So I don’t think there’s a backlash coming in at all.”

But the Biden campaign insists they see opportunity.

“I don’t think the president coming to the state tomorrow to talk about the fundamental stakes in this election for women in Florida and across the country is ‘window dressing.’ We take Florida very seriously,” Tyler told reporters. “The idea that Donald Trump has the state in the bag could not be further from the truth.”