Days after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos can be considered “children,” President Biden held a fundraiser at the Silicon Valley home of a leading supporter of stem cell research and said that if he votes for Donald Trump, It warned that it would restrict reproductive rights beyond abortion.
“Trump and his MAGA friends are denying your basic freedoms,” Biden said Thursday at a small event held at the home of real estate developers Bob Kline and Daniel Guttman Kline. I am determined to take it away.”
Klein was the leader of Proposition 71, a California ballot measure approved by voters in 2004 that secured state funding for stem cell research to support medical discoveries and cures for disease. The move comes after former Republican President George W. Bush limited federal funding for research over ethical concerns by religious conservatives about the destruction of the human embryos that supplied the cells.
Biden's visit to Klein's home in the wealthy town of Los Altos Hills comes after an Alabama court decision halted in vitro fertilization treatment, known as in vitro fertilization, in hopes of conceiving a child with the treatment. This was carried out while some of the patients who had been in the hospital were left there. This practice involves combining sperm and eggs in a laboratory to create an embryo, which is then implanted into the uterus.
An Alabama court's ruling that those who destroy frozen embryos can be held liable for wrongful death follows a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, which makes abortion more uncertain. This is raising new concerns about reproductive health access. Abortion rights nationwide.
The issue has reignited a partisan ethics debate over the medical use of stem cells, with Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley saying this week that she believes “fetuses are babies.”
At Thursday's event, Biden doubled down on his promise to veto a nationwide abortion ban proposed by Congress, saying that if he is re-elected and Democrats win a majority in Congress in November, his administration would He said the rollback of reproductive rights could be reversed.
“I am committed to fully restoring Roe v. Wade,” Biden said to applause.
When Vice President Kamala Harris visited San Jose last month, she appealed to voters about the need to put Democrats in charge to avoid a nationwide abortion ban.
President Trump credits Roe v. Wade reversal to himself, made possible thanks to high court appointments and The New York Times report This week, he announced that if elected, he plans to take it even further by targeting access to abortion pills.
“If Joe Biden is not re-elected, all of these rights and advances are in real danger of being lost,” Klein said Thursday, pointing to progress in IVF, abortion, cancer research and reducing the cost of life-saving prescriptions. ”
Former California Gov. Steve Westley, who ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for governor in 2006, also co-hosted the Bay Area event, which was held in a remote residential area near Santa Clara, but did not include horses or donkeys. was walking around in a neighbor's garden.
Ticket prices for the event range from $6,600 to $100,000. Attendees included Democratic Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and television journalist Katie Couric, an advocate for pancreatic cancer research.
Biden, who has been in California since Tuesday and stopped at fundraisers in Los Angeles and San Francisco, was on his way back to the White House on Thursday, where state leaders including Gov. Gavin Newsom met Biden for the National Governors Conference. I was waiting for the arrival of. winter meeting.
The 81-year-old Biden nods to criticism about his ability to serve another term at his age, while on the campaign trail he shares a common refrain of comparing himself to alternatives rather than “the Almighty.”
“I'm not the product of every president, but I'm sure I'm much better than the previous one.”
