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President Biden started his sprawling national address Thursday night with a warning to Republicans: Women have rebuked attempted abortion limits in past elections, and they will do it again. (Owermohle, 3/7)

The president never used the word abortion — a word he is deeply uncomfortable with as a devout Catholic — but he vowed to protect and champion reproductive freedom, which has been a powerful booster of Democrats’ political fortunes since the Supreme Court in 2022 overturned Roe. “Those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade have no clue about the power of women,” Biden said, in an apparent reference to Trump. (Pager and Olorunnipa, 3/7)

Biden confronted the Supreme Court—with some justices in the audience looking on—over the decision that eliminated the right to an abortion. “With all due respect, justices, women are not without electoral or political power,” Biden said. “You’re about to realize just how much.” It was an unusually direct rebuke of the court by Biden, an institutionalist who has long said he respects the independence of the court. (Lucey, 3/8)

Latorya Beasley was supposed to undergo an embryo transfer this week at her clinic, Alabama Fertility, in hopes of having her second child through in vitro fertilization (IVF). But her plans were thwarted by a state Supreme Court ruling that halted IVF for many in the state. Now, she’s attending President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address as a guest of First Lady Jill Biden. (Panetta and Luthra, 3/7)

As a sign of what a political liability the IVF issue has become for Republicans, Senator Katie Britt of Alabama was selected to provide the party's rebuttal to Biden's address. "We support continued nationwide access to in vitro fertilization," she said during her rebuttal. Last month, Senate Republicans blocked a bill to protect IVF nationwide. Biden’s defense of IVF treatments was a shift in the messaging he had been delivering on reproductive rights for nearly two years, since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs decision. He also lambasted former President Donald Trump and other Republicans for boasting about having nominated three of the Supreme Court justices that helped overturn the nearly 50-year constitutional right of access to abortions. (Bennett, 3/8)

Some advocates believe that merely reinstating access as it existed under Roe is insufficient for truly protecting abortion rights. Biden’s remarks on Thursday, and the larger messaging by Democrats ahead of a difficult election season, reflect an ongoing struggle within the movement to determine how to truly ensure everyone who wants an abortion can obtain one. (Segers, 3/8)