The Biden campaign plans to send both Vice President Kamala Harris and First Lady Jill Biden to battleground states in the coming days as part of a full-scale political offensive on abortion.
Their trip falls on Monday, June 24, exactly two years after the Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade, which codified a woman's right to an abortion.
The first lady will travel on Sunday to rural Pittsburgh and Lancaster in Pennsylvania, a battleground state that Trump won by 15 points, while the vice president will campaign in Arizona and Maryland on Monday, both of which are hotly contested Senate races.
The Biden campaign said it will hold more than 50 events around the country about the Dobbs decision in the coming days, with a focus on battleground states, including an event with Harris, a tour of Wisconsin with Sen. Elizabeth Warren and several events with women affected by strict abortion bans in Republican-leaning states.
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Abortion is a top issue for voters, and the Biden-Harris reelection team has seized the opportunity to make a case for reproductive rights, laying out the stakes for the November general election, contrasting itself with Republicans on the issue and blaming former President Donald Trump for a nationwide abortion ban.
During his time in Arizona, the vice president will focus on how restrictions on reproductive freedom affect Latinos, who are home to 1.3 million Latino voters in the state, according to the Pew Research Center, making up roughly 1 in 4 eligible voters in the 2024 election.
Harris is also expected to highlight the threats facing birth control and in vitro fertilization, and make the case that Trump would sign a nationwide ban, according to a source familiar with the vice president's plans.
During the campaign, the vice president made reproductive rights a key issue, often blaming the former president for abortion bans across the country. Harris has repeatedly warned voters that Trump has promised to sign a federal abortion ban into law.
“A Trump presidency would be even worse,” Harris said at a campaign event in Florida on May 1, the day the state's six-week abortion ban went into effect. “Our friends and allies in Congress are trying to pass a nationwide ban, but we understand that a nationwide ban would make abortion illegal in every state.”
Earlier this year, President Trump floated the idea of ​​a federal ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, but in April he sidestepped the idea, saying the issue should be up to states to decide. More recently, during an appearance on the “All In” podcast on Thursday, President Trump said he would not support a nationwide ban.
The first of two planned debates between Biden and Trump is scheduled for Thursday, moderated by CNN, and Harris is expected to say during the debate that former President Biden will be on the defensive on the issue of abortion, according to a source familiar with her remarks.
Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Harris has participated in more than 85 events across the country focused on reproductive rights. Monday's visit marks her third this year to Arizona, a state Trump won in 2016 and Biden won in 2020, but by less than 11,000 votes.
The fight over abortion
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