White House Snipes at Progressive Activists Over Abortion: They’re ‘Consistently Out of Step’ With Mainstream Democrats
JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images
White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield lashed out at abortion rights groups in response to Democratic Party frustrations that President Joe Biden hasn’t been more forceful on the subject.
The Washington Post published an article on Saturday with a broad focus on Biden’s reaction to the Supreme Court’s overturning Roe V. Wade. The piece notes that many pro-abortion activists and members of Biden’s party are disappointed the president has not reflected their level of passion over the rollback of federal abortion rights protections. The anger is punctuated by the fact that the White House knew the Roe strike down was likely to happen months in advance.
“Leadership right now is coming from the streets, and we would love to be met in that effort by the White House and the Democrats more broadly,” Rachel Carmona, the executive director of the Women’s March, told the Post. “I think that Biden has an opportunity to step forward in a leadership role in a way that he has not.”
The Post article comes amid several recent reports about Democrats who’ve been dismayed by Biden’s tepid action and his seeming lack of a plan before signing an executive order to protect abortion access. Bedingfield, who is leaving her job at the end of summer, defended Biden’s level of urgency while swiping at those demanding more from him.
“The president has been showing his deep outrage as an American and executing his bold plan — which is the product of months of hard work — ever since this decision was handed down,” Bedingfield told the Post, in a statement. “Joe Biden’s goal in responding to Dobbs is not to satisfy some activists who have been consistently out of step with the mainstream of the Democratic Party. It’s to deliver help to women who are in danger and assemble a broad-based coalition to defend a woman’s right to choose now, just as he assembled such a coalition to win during the 2020 campaign.”
