Biden vows to protect abortion rights in ad on second anniversary of Roe fall

Joe Biden marked the second anniversary of the US supreme court ruling that overturned Roe v Wade with a video in which he pledges to restore the right to an abortion and “protect American freedom” if he is re-elected.

The 45-second video, issued two years to the day since the court’s decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization reversed nearly half a century of guaranteed federal abortion rights, reflects the centrality of abortion in Biden’s presidential campaign.

The vice-president, Kamala Harris, has recently been giving press interviews on abortion, and on Monday several groups – including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Reproductive Rights and Reproductive Freedom for All – announced a $100m Abortion Access Now campaign across several states.

In Biden’s video, the president puts the responsibility for reversing abortion rights squarely on Donald Trump, quoting him boasting about the decision and taking credit for putting three conservative justices on the court.

“Here’s what Donald Trump says about your freedom: ‘After 50 years of failure, with nobody coming even close, I was able to kill Roe v Wade,’” Biden says, quoting a Trump statement last year.

“Two years ago, the supreme court justices that Trump handpicked helped overturn Roe v Wade,” Biden continues. “Decades of progress shattered just because the last guy got four years in the White House.”

In a clear statement of intent that reproductive rights would be at the forefront of his re-election message, Biden warns that the reversal of Roe v Wade would be “just the beginning” for Trump’s Maga (Make America great again) Republican followers.

“They’re going to try to ban the right to choose nationwide,” he says. “They’re coming for birth control and IVF next.

“We’re up against extremism. Send me back to the White House and I’ll fight like hell to restore Roe v Wade and protect American freedom.”

The message comes amid polling evidence that with consistently weak approval ratings for Biden, concerns over reproductive rights represent Democrats’ best hope of retaining the White House in November.

Since Roe v Wade was overthrown in 2022, ballot measures in several states – including ones that tend to vote Republican – have upheld or enshrined abortion rights locally, signalling that the issue has popular resonance particularly among female voters.

On Friday, a group of Montana abortion rights supporters became the latest to announce that they had secured enough signatures to hold a November ballot measure asking voters to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution. Although that measure has not yet been confirmed by state officials, voters in roughly a dozen states are expected to weigh in directly on abortion rights this year, including in battleground states such as Nevada and Arizona.

Democrats are hoping that these measures will boost turnout in their favor.

Trump has sought to backpedal on his stance in recent months, telling congressional Republicans in a meeting on Capitol Hill this month that the matter should be left to the states and warning them against pursuing a national ban.