FACT CHECK: Biden Paints Lifesaving, Pro-Life Laws as ‘Extreme’

President Joe Biden painted lifesaving legislation restricting abortion as “extreme” during his State of the Union remarks on Tuesday.

“Congress must restore the right the Supreme Court took away last year and codify Roe v. Wade to protect every woman’s constitutional right to choose,” Biden said. “The vice president and I are doing everything we can to protect access to reproductive health care and safeguard patient privacy.”

“But already, more than a dozen states are enforcing extreme abortion bans,” he added. “Make no mistake; if Congress passes a national abortion ban, I will veto it.”

The president’s reference to “extreme abortion bans” refers to laws that protect unborn babies from being killed. Almost 70% of Americans support limiting abortions to the first three months of a pregnancy, according to a January 2023 survey by the Knights of Columbus and Marist Poll.

About 14 states have passed near total bans on aborting unborn babies, according to Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, and six more states have passed near total abortion bans dependent on legal action. One state (Florida) bans abortions after 15 weeks. Twenty-six states have few or no laws restricting abortion.

Analysis by the Charlotte Lozier Institute shows that the overwhelming majority of European nations restrict abortions to 15 weeks’ gestation—making the United States’ laws allowing late-term abortions some of the most extreme in the world.

“No European nation allows elective abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, as is effectively permitted in several U.S. states, and America is one of only a small handful of nations, along with China and North Korea, to permit any sort of late-term elective abortion,” said Angelina B. Nguyen, a Lozier Institute associate scholar.

The states with strong pro-life laws on the books allow timely medical treatments for miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, and other medical procedures needed to save the life of a pregnant woman, contrary to the claims of many high-profile Democrats.

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