Major reproductive rights groups to back Biden for reelection

Three major reproductive rights groups are expected to back President Biden’s reelection bid during a Friday rally to mark one year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. 

Planned Parenthood Action Fund, NARAL Pro-Choice America and EMILY’s List are each slated to endorse Biden and Vice President Harris during the Friday event in Washington, D.C., which Biden and Harris are both scheduled to attend.

While it is not a surprise for abortion-rights groups to support Biden and Harris, the early endorsements underscore how the issue is likely to be central to the president’s campaign heading into 2024.

“MAGA Republicans’ promising a national abortion ban makes reelecting President Biden and Vice President Harris all the more important,” Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden’s campaign manager, said in a statement to The Associated Press. 

The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Biden has vowed to protect abortion access in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling, which ended the roughly 50-year precedent set by Roe that guaranteed a right to an abortion. The president has signed executive orders aimed at safeguarding Americans’ ability to travel for the procedure and to get the abortion pill, and Harris has emerged as the administration’s most outspoken official championing the issue.

More than 20 states, meanwhile, have passed laws restricting abortion access in the year since the Supreme Court ruling, and most Republican presidential candidates have said they would support some type of federal law restricting when abortions would be legal.

An NBC News poll released Thursday found 61 percent of Americans said they disapprove of the Supreme Court’s ruling that overturned Roe, up from 58 percent last August.