Biden rallies supporters for abortion rights ahead of the midterm elections.

Biden rallies supporters for abortion rights.

US President Joe Biden has urged Americans concerned about reproductive rights to vote Democratic in the upcoming midterm elections, promising to introduce legislation in Congress to protect the right to abortion nationwide if his party wins.

In a speech on Tuesday, Biden stated that if Democrats retain control of the House of Representatives and expand their Senate majority, he will sign legislation codifying Roe v Wade, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that established a constitutional right to abortion, early next year.

“Folks, if we do that, here’s my promise to you and the American people: the first bill I’ll send to Congress will be to codify Roe v Wade, and if Congress passes it, I’ll sign it in January,” Biden said.

The conservative majority on the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe in June, infuriating abortion rights advocates and Democratic lawmakers.

Democrats have made abortion a key election issue, and it has worked so far. Democratic candidates who focused their campaigns on abortion won key early races.

Kansas voters, who lean Republican, also rejected a referendum to remove abortion protections from the state constitution.

Democrats now have a slim majority in both chambers of Congress, but a legislative procedure known as the filibuster in the 100-member Senate requires 60 votes to pass major legislation.

Biden had previously expressed support for establishing a filibuster exemption in order to pass legislation protecting abortion rights. However, two conservative Democratic senators have objected to the idea, and bills supporting reproductive rights that passed the House have stalled in the Senate.