Watching furiously as the Supreme Court dismantled what had been a constitutional right for nearly 50 years, Democrats and activists implored the White House to do everything in its power to ensure people still had access to abortion.
They see President Biden’s announcement last week that he supports refusing to end the Senate filibuster to codify abortion rights at the federal level as a step in the right direction, but it has done little to calm their anger.
“One would really think that this decision hadn’t even leaked because it seems very clear that there was no real planning from the White House,” said Max Burns, a progressive strategist who works on down-ballot races ahead of the midterm elections, referring to leak earlier this summer of a draft decision overturning Roe v. Wade. “I don’t know how you can be surprised with a pre-announced decision!”
“Every senior official who talks about our post-Roe nightmare seems to have a different narrative,” he continued, “which is a sign that there is no narrative at all.”
“Sorry,” Burns concluded, “that’s a point of great rage.”
Burns is not alone. Feeling frustrated that the Biden administration had not done enough to protect women during this crucial, revealing precedent, the court overturned the landmark decision on abortion rights.
Hours after the decision, Biden gave a fiery speech about the decision, denouncing it as a “tragic mistake.”
“This decision should not be the last word. My administration will use all of its appropriate, statutory authority, but Congress must act,” Biden said.
But the speech did not mollify many. And the progressive response is particularly loud.
Lawmakers and activists on the left called on Biden and his entire White House to deliver a clear message of urgency to Americans about the decision’s significance and provide a unified roadmap of practical options to help people maintain access to the full range of reproductive health care .
On Thursday, the president appeared to have turned in a new direction.
During a global news conference, Biden called on the tightly controlled Senate Democratic majority to change its long-standing filibuster rule to protect Roe’s statute. That would allow Democrats to pass a bill without any Republican votes.
“I believe we need to codify Roe v. Wade into law, and the way to do that is to make sure Congress votes on it,” he said from a NATO conference in Madrid, Spain. “If the filibuster gets in your way, it’s like the right to vote, we need to provide an exception for that.”
Finally, outspoken liberals announced, a step in the right direction. Some acknowledged that the president and his administration seem to have gotten the message.
“Now we’re talking!” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted after Biden’s announcement. “It’s about time people saw a real, strong push for this. Use the bully pulpit. We need more.”
The administration also received praise after the Department of Health and Human Services launched a website dedicated to helping people find contraceptives and abortion services.
“I think we’re starting to see some more concrete steps and definitely more of that,” said Bethany Van Kampen Saravia, senior legal and policy adviser at the global reproductive justice organization Ipas.
“I definitely wouldn’t necessarily say they’re flat-footed,” she added, referring to the administration.
But the anger is unlikely to go away. Progressives have warned that the decision could cost Democrats the House and Senate if they don’t mobilize accordingly, and many believe more steps should be taken in the short term to talk to voters. In recent days, they have raised concerns about everything from the privacy of health data-sharing apps to the closure of emergency abortion centers.
In the absence of an urgent enough national response from the White House, in the eyes of some on the left, progressives are drawing renewed attention to polls and ads to amplify the problem.
In a MoveOn poll obtained exclusively by The Hill, likely voters in four battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — overwhelmingly support abortion access and disapprove of overturning Roe, evidence that Democrats are circulating to show how the rulers can work to their advantage at the polls.
In Arizona, one of the biggest Democratic targets in the midterm elections and one that Biden won in 2020, 60 percent of likely voters polled said they thought abortion should be legal.
In another sign of the decision’s potential campaign significance, a number of liberal pro-choice organizations have launched large-scale ad buys in major swing Senate states, including Nevada, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
That outside work is meant to supplement areas where the administration may fall short, some say.
“The president can’t make anybody do anything,” said Democratic strategist Antoine Seawright.
“The executive has a role to play. The legislature and the judiciary [branch] plays a role. The courtroom [branch] their role is clear. It is to violate,” he said.
“Now we have to do a purge in the legislature, specifically in the United States Senate.”
Still, some Democrats say the impulse to blame the Senate — from inside the White House on down — has become something of a crutch in the debate. While it’s true that two moderates, Sens. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) and Kirsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) have complicated much of Biden’s agenda by failing to fend off the filibuster, some say Bidenworld must be stronger in its planning and reaction.
“The White House can rightfully blame Manchin and Sinema (and 50 GOP senators) for the Senate gridlock,” Burns said, “but that doesn’t explain why the White House doesn’t seem to have a clear narrative or plan of action.”
“They continue to send Kamala Harris to be embarrassed in front of a national audience by sending messages that the White House then seems to completely abandon,” he said.
Earlier this week, Harris, who has struggled to gain footing during her time as vice president, said “not right now” when asked on CNN whether administration officials were considering the option of providing access to abortion services in federal lands, a line that put her at odds with progressives like Ocasio-Cortez, who called it one of several “baby steps” that could be taken, including in Republican-controlled states.
Others defending the administration, however, described much of the discontent among progressives as “online noise” that doesn’t necessarily ring true with many Democratic voters.
Those voices take comfort in knowing that voters did choose Biden over other contenders to lead the country away from Trump, and believe the president deserves some breathing space during his first term.
“They find themselves lining up or dancing to the tune of the activists,” Seawright said of the progressives. “And yes, it’s important, but it’s not always the most important thing, because governing and campaigning can be two different things.”
Of course, the anger is not limited to the left wing.
Even some Republicans wondered aloud why the opposing party had not yet taken steps to codify the decision in the past five decades.
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“Democrats, what have you been doing all these years without codifying Roe?” said Rina Shah, a GOP operative who launched Republican Women for Biden during the last election.
While some far-right GOP candidates and lawmakers on Capitol Hill welcomed the SCOTUS move, others expressed personal shock that Democrats find themselves in this position now.
“I don’t respect those judges because they shouldn’t have done that,” she said.
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