A day after the Florida Supreme Court opened the door for a six-week abortion ban to take hold in the state, President Joe Biden's reelection efforts targeted former President Donald Trump and his role in ending the federal right to terminate a pregnancy.
"For 54 years, they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated, and I did it, and I'm proud to have done it," Trump said in a clip to begin the 30-second campaign ad.
During the Trump presidency, the justices that he named to the U.S. Supreme Court ushered in a 6-3 conservative majority ultimately leading to the overturning of Roe V. Wade in June 2022.
In 2016, Donald Trump ran to overturn Roe v. Wade. Now in 2024, he's running to pass a national ban on a woman's right to choose," Biden says in the commercial.
While the economy, immigration, inflation, and burgeoning conflicts abroad appear to be dragging down Biden's overall approval rating, one issue his campaign feels will win over the conveted swing voter is the issue of abortion.
Republicans have struggled to align with a coherent message ever since the divisive issue pivoted from being a federal right to one decided by individual states.
"I'm running to make Roe v. Wade the law of the land again, so women again have a federal guarantee to the right to choose. Donald Trump doesn't trust women. I do," Biden said in the ad.
The new ad is part of a $30 million spring advertising blitz from the Biden campaign to target the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, and Nevada.
Campaign manager Julie Chavez-Rodriguez said in a memo: "This new, extreme abortion ban — one that Donald Trump personally paved the way for — will now amount to a ban for the entire Southeast. Women in need of reproductive care throughout the region now face a choice between putting their lives at risk or traveling hundreds or thousands of miles to get care."
Despite back-to-back Trump wins in Florida and current GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis winning reelection by almost 20 points in 2022, the Democrats see abortion as a way to possibly flip the Sunshine State.
"Make no mistake: Florida is not an easy state to win, but it is a winnable one for President Biden, especially given Trump's weak, cash-strapped campaign, and serious vulnerabilities within his coalition," Chavez-Rodriguez said.