Harris takes aim at Trump on abortion ruling anniversary

V-P, Democrats spotlight his role in vote by Supreme Court to overturn abortion rights

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US President Joe Biden’s campaign used the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning abortion rights on June 24 to spotlight Donald Trump’s role in the ruling, as Democrats zero in on the issue ahead of the November election.

Vice-President Kamala Harris, a former prosecutor, said Trump, the Republican former president seeking re-election, was “guilty” of taking away reproductive rights from women.

Mrs Jill Biden and other Democrats speaking on June 24 also tried to mobilise volunteers and voters around protecting the patchwork remains of abortion access.

Mr Biden said in a statement: “Donald Trump is the sole person responsible for this nightmare.”

He said the reversal two years ago of the landmark Roe versus Wade ruling of 1973, which gave constitutional protection to abortion rights, has been “devastating”.

Ms Harris said at a campaign event in Maryland: “This is a fight for freedom: the fundamental freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not having her government tell her what to do.”

Trump appointed three conservative Supreme Court justices during his 2017 to 2021 presidency, leading to a change in the court’s balance that sparked the abortion ruling in 2022.

Ms Harris called the plan to overturn Roe versus Wade “premeditated”.