June 6, 2023
“While White House officials have tried to water down President Biden’s radical views on abortion by hiding behind confusion on a Supreme Court case, the press secretary’s recent statement on Roe v. Wade was the either deliberately evasive or deceptive as few understand just how radical Roe and Doe were on abortion policy,” said Students for Life Action President Kristan Hawkins.
“Even MSBNC’s Joe Scarborough knows Americans don’t support the Democratic Party’s position of abortion through all 9 months, for any reason, and sometimes with taxpayer funding. Add in the power grab of the Women’s Health Protection Act, and abortion is coercive policy. Does President Biden support abortion through all 9 months up to and including infanticide if a baby survives the procedure? That’s what his party has been fighting for, and Americans deserve a straight answer.”
WASHINGTON D.C. (06-06-2023) — Abortion confusion on the campaign trail continued this week as CNN’s Jake Tapper incorrectly stated during a candidate forum with GOP hopeful Nikki Haley that the Supreme Court Decision on abortion (Roe v. Wade) limited abortion at about 5 months (20 weeks) of pregnancy. In fact, Roe v. Wade along with the companion case, Doe v. Bolton, allowed for abortion through all nine months, for any reason at all, and sometimes with taxpayer funding. This doesn’t mean that all abortion vendors do abortions up to birth; it means that such horrific procedures are available in the U.S. However, Tapper also said that President Biden’s position was the same as Roe, news to all who track this issue.
Asked to clarify this astounding information, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre gave the abortion lobby a dog whistle answer in code, saying: Biden “will continue to call on Congress to restore Roe v. Wade,” adding “so if you know the particulars of Roe v. Wade, you see where the president stands, and I’ll just leave it there for now.”
“We know the particulars,” said Students for Life Action (SFLAction) President Kristan Hawkins, who called on President Biden and the White House to clarify President Joe Biden’s complete position on abortion given the contradiction in the press secretary’s answer.
“The White House press shop may need a tutorial on Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton that together allowed abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, along with a briefing on the policy agenda that former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have championed. In preventing passage of the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, designed to prevent infanticide of infants born during botched abortions, along with pushing the so-called Women’s Health Protection Act, that goes far beyond ‘codifying Roe’ by demanding abortion through all 9 months as well as stopping states from passing pro-life laws and pro-life medical professionals from refusing the end life, Biden’s Democratic coalition would end life from conception to the cradle. Where does the President stand?”
“The reporters and the Biden Administration likely know that hiding behind Roe as a catch phrase may confuse people, and so we ask: President Biden, at what point do you support limits on abortion? Is it at five months of pregnancy as Jack Tapper said? Or do you support the agenda of both Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and the abortion lobby?
Students for Life of America has shown in a number of polls, including this year’s YouGov poll for the SFLA Demetree Institute for Pro-Life Advancement, that people don’t understand Roe v. Wade, but when it’s explained, minds are changed.
As reported by the Demetree Insitute:
Roe allowed for abortion to take place in the U.S. through all 9 months, for any reason at all, and sometimes with taxpayer funding. Codifying Roe efforts in the House and Senate during former Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer’s tenure also included attacking state laws, including those that address health and safety standards required for abortion businesses.
BEFORE THEY LEARNED MORE: Gen Z and Gen Y were first asked whether they supported Codifying Roe with no definition given on what that meant, and 52% strongly or somewhat strongly supported it, 26% undecided, and 22% opposing.
They were then asked a few follow up questions on support for:
- Abortion through all 9 months: 18% strongly supported; 18% somewhat supported; 12% somewhat opposed, and 34% strongly opposed. This adds up to 36% of youth voters for abortion through all 9 months to 46% against, and 18% still thinking.
- Taxpayers funding abortion; 43% somewhat tostrongly supported and 36% strongly to somewhat oppose; and 21% unsure. (This is a decrease as 2022 polling indicated 56% support for taxpayer funding.)
- Abortion for any reason (sex selection, et al): 54% somewhat tostrongly supported and 31% somewhat to strongly opposed with 15% undecided.
- States being stopped in their efforts to have health and safety standards for abortion vendors: 38% wanted women to be protected, while 30% supported preventing health and safety standards from being enforced, and 32% uncertain.
While their thoughts on some of the specifics of Codifying Roe were mixed, when asked again about whether they supported the extremism of Roe policy, their views had changed.
AFTER THEY LEARNED MORE: With more information, young voters changed their minds and the math flipped by 15 points as 37% supported “Codifying Roe” after learning more, down from 52%. Those opposing “Codifying Roe” rose from 22% to 47% — a 25-point shift, made possible in part as 26% undecided fell to 16%.
“Joe Biden’s team wants to hide behind confusion,” said Hawkins. “Fortunately, we are here to set the record straight.”
To learn more about the Women’s Health Protection Act, repeatedly advanced by Joe Biden’s party, read about SFLAction’s efforts to oppose here.
To learn more about the impact of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, click HERE to watch Hawkins correct MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on air or read this SFLA blog entitled: “Kristan Hawkins Schools MSNBC on Roe and Rape Exceptions.”
For interviews email [email protected]
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Students for Life Action (SFLAction), a 501c4, along with its 501c3 sister organization, Students for Life of America (SFLA), make up the nation’s largest pro-life youth organization and a political and policy operation engaging people of all ages. Together they work to end abortion — the human rights issue of our day — and provide political, legal, and community support for women and their children, born and preborn. Headquartered in Fredericksburg, VA, SFLA has more than 1,300 groups on middle, high school, college, university, medical, and law school campuses in all 50 states. SFLA creates strategy, policy, and programming to connect those most targeted for abortion with people ready to help and builds a framework for political engagement on their behalf. SFLA and SFLAction have more conversations with those most targeted by the abortion industry than any other pro-life outreach in the world, reaching more than 2 million people across social media platforms each week and engaging in approximately 100,000 digital conversations per month. Over more than 16 years, President Kristan Hawkins has grown SFLAction/SFLA into an $18 million organization preparing for a Post-Roe America.