WASHINGTON — President Obama reaffirmed his support for abortion rights at a speech during the Planned Parenthood annual conference Friday, and condemned an ongoing state-by-state conservative push to limit access to abortion services or ban the practice all together.
Many state legislatures under Republican control after the 2010 elections have worked hard to put a pro-life agenda into place, a battle that abortion rights supporters say threatens many women's right to choose enshrined in Roe v. Wade.
Obama shared concerns about this in his speech Friday. Citing a new North Dakota law that bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Obama suggested that law effectively banned abortion outright. "A woman may not even know that she's pregnant at six weeks," he said.
Reaching back into rhetoric from the campaign trail — when Obama and other Democrats often accused Republicans of trying to take the country back to the 1950s when it came to women's rights — Obama said the new state anti-abortion laws seem retro.
"When you read some of these laws you want to check the calendar to make sure you're still living in 2013," he said.