The state of the union's health

President Biden leaves little doubt that abortion will be number one health care issue on the November ballot.

Thanks to last night’s State of the Union Address, few people outside the Fox-driven media-verse are still talking about Joe Biden’s age-related infirmities. Here’s hoping the armchair doctors in the media-ocracy will now move on to the other medical issue presented by a presidential candidate this year: The possibility that the president’s predecessor, as Biden preferred to call Donald Trump last night, shows early signs of dementia.

I am not a doctor and I don’t play one on TV. But I challenge my former colleagues in the mainstream media to call on both candidates to allow an independent panel of physicians to administer the neurological, cognitive, functional and behavioral tests used to diagnose early signs of dementia. They could also ask each candidate to undergo brain PET scans that can detect the agglomeration of amyloid and tau proteins associated with the disease (whether these biomarkers are the cause or an aftereffect is a separate question). The results of the tests should be made public so voters will have objective information for evaluating claims made one way or the other about the relative mental condition of either candidate.

Forgive me for that digression. But as someone who has watched all the males in my family older than myself begin to develop dementia at an age younger than I am today, I am particularly sensitive to noticing signs of the disease. I watched Joe Biden last night. He didn’t look impaired to me — other than the usual stumbles associated with his lifelong speech impediment.

Now on to the main theme I took away from the speech. The president reminded everyone that abortion access will be the number one health care issue on the ballot this November — not just at the top the ticket but down ballot where voters will get to choose who runs the next Congress.

“My God, what freedoms will you take away next?” Biden said as he stared down at the Republican side of the aisle. The president’s guests last night included the Texas woman who had to leave the state to get the abortion that saved her life and an Alabama woman denied access to her own fertilized eggs after the state’s Supreme Court shut down in vitro fertilization treatments. “Those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade have no clue about the power of women. But they found out when reproductive freedom was on the ballot and we won in 2022, and 2023,” he said. “And we’ll win again in 2024.”

Much of the media coverage about Democrats’ emphasis on abortion rights has been one-sided. “There is little the president can do for abortion rights, which is why his promise to ‘restore’ Roe v. Wade was so carefully crafted to include the hedge that he would do so ‘if’ voters also elect a Congress that could pass such legislation,” the New York Times “reported” this morning.

Excuse me. There is plenty Biden in a second term could do, including if Republicans win either or both houses of Congress, a distinct possibility given that two-thirds of the Senators up for reelection this fall are Democrats or independents that vote Democratic. He has promised to veto any legislation that would impose national restrictions on abortion. Federal agencies like CMS, the FDA and HHS could craft rules that allow cross-border (international and state) access to morning-after contraception and at-home abortion pills.

It’s important to note that polls over the past few months showing Biden consistently behind Trump do not reflect the extensive advertising this summer and fall that will remind voters about the centrality of Trump’s role in repealing Roe v. Wade. When running for president in 2016, he promised to appoint high court judges that would do that. Mission accomplished.

Those ads will also remind voters he is promising to sign legislation that would impose a national ban on abortions after 16 weeks of pregnancy, two months before fetal viability, which was the allowable restriction established in the 1973 ruling. In other words, if Republicans win Congress and the White House in November, blue states will have their abortion rights restricted, which would not just cut off reproductive health services for their residents but for the thousands of women who are now flocking to blue states for their care because of severe restrictions in their own states.

(For a gripping presentation on that issue, watch Red, White and Blue, a short film that, based on my viewing of all the nominees, deserves to win the Live Action Short Film Oscar this weekend.)

Unsplash photo by Manny Becerra

As Biden reminded everyone last night, everywhere abortion rights have been on the ballot, abortion rights have won. Grass roots groups are moving to put the issue before voters in the form of laws or constitutional amendments in nearly a dozen states, including swing states like Arizona, Florida and Nevada.

That’s why I don’t put much stock in polls eight months out that show Biden losing. They included the Times/Siena poll released last week that showed him trailing 48-43. It showed women voters evenly split, while men favored Trump by nine points. Four years, ago, women favored Biden by a 57-42 margin.

What are the odds of women splitting 50-50 on Election Day 2024? I’d say, slim to none.