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Joe Biden
PHOTO: LEAH MILLIS / REUTERS
Three weeks before the important congressional elections in the USA, President Joe Biden makes abortion rights a central campaign issue.
The US president vowed on Tuesday to reintroduce into law the country's abortion rights, which the Supreme Court scrapped in June, if his Democrats defend and expand their congressional majorities.
Voters must elect more Democratic politicians in the House and Senate on November 8, Biden said during a speech in the capital Washington at an event of his party.
"If we do, then this is my promise to you and the American people: The first bill I send to Congress will be Roe v.
Commit Wade.”
In June, the Supreme Court, with its conservative majority of judges, issued the landmark decision »Roe v.
Wade, which had enshrined a nationwide fundamental right to abortion.
This gave states the right to massively restrict or ban abortions.
Numerous conservative states have now done so.
»Vote, go vote, we can make it if we vote«
Biden has now said that with the necessary majorities in Congress, he could sign legislation next January that would restore the right to abortions nationwide.
"Together we will restore the right to choose [abortion] for every woman in every state," the president said.
"So vote, go vote, we can do it if we vote."
The Supreme Court's decision on abortion rights had triggered a political earthquake and caused many outraged reactions.
The Democrats were early on to use this topic in the election campaign.
Polls show, however, that voters care more about economic issues and, in particular, high inflation than abortion rights.
The question is therefore to what extent the Democrats can score with the issue of abortion.
All 435 members of the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 senators will be re-elected in the midterm congressional elections on November 8th.
Democrats currently have narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress.
According to polls, the opposition Republicans are likely to gain a majority in the House of Representatives.
The party of Biden's predecessor Donald Trump could also achieve a majority in the Senate.
In the midterm elections, voters routinely punish the president's party, and Biden has suffered from poor poll numbers for some time.
dop/AFP
