President Joe Biden directly addressed several Supreme Court justices while discussing reproductive rights during his State of the Union address on Thursday night.
Early in his speech, Biden said he would push to restore the abortion access enshrined by Roe v. Wade — a decision he believes “got it right” — which the Supreme Court repealed via the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health ruling.
The president paraphrased Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote in the Dobbs decision that “women are not without electoral or political power.” Biden then paused mid-sentence to address the six justices sitting in the front row, ad-libbing, “with all due respect, justices.” (Alito and Justices Clarence Thomas and Amy Coney Barrett did not attend.)
“Clearly,” he went on, “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.”
Biden also highlighted two of first lady Jill Biden’s guests who were sitting in the audience: Latorya Beasley, an Alabama woman whose IVF care was interrupted by the state Supreme Court ruling last month that granted embryos the same legal status as children; and Kate Cox, a Texas woman who sued the state last year to access an emergency abortion.
“If you, the American people, send me a Congress that supports the right to choose, I promise you I will restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land again,” Biden said.
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Despite devoting a good amount of time to the topic of reproductive rights, Biden did not say the word abortion, instead referring repeatedly to Cox’s efforts to “act.” Abortion rights advocates have been frustrated with the president for what can feel like his reticence to fully support abortion rights in a post-Roe world, including his reluctance to say the word itself. In a recent interview with The New Yorker, Biden said he’s “never been supportive of, you know, ‘It’s my body, I can do what I want with it.’”
Although he still has difficulty discussing abortion, Biden, a Catholic, has nonetheless made restoring Roe a central part of his re-election campaign.
The chamber was filled with Democrats wearing white and pins that read “Fighting for Reproductive Freedom.” Over 30 Democrats invited guests who are involved in the reproductive rights movement in some way, including OB-GYNs, women denied abortion care and other IVF patients impacted by the recent Alabama ruling.
“Tonight, President Biden reaffirmed that he has our back,” Mini Timmaraju, president of Reproductive Freedom For All, formerly NARAL, said in a statement. “The stakes this November could not be higher for reproductive freedom, abortion access, and our democracy itself. Every step of progress that we hope to make nationally depends on the reelection of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and delivering Democratic majorities in Congress.”