First lady in Las Vegas speech: ‘Donald Trump is dangerous to women’
First lady Jill Biden encouraged Nevadan women to re-elect husband President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris during an event Saturday at the SEIU Local 1107 hall in Las Vegas.
The power went out a little over an hour before the event began, but that didn’t stop Biden and other notable speakers from warning attendees of the stakes of the upcoming election.
“Our bodies are on the line, and when our daughters’ futures are at stake, when our country and its freedom hang in the balance, we are immovable and unstoppable,” Biden told attendees.
The first lady’s event in Nevada was the third stop on a multistate tour meant to mobilize women voters.
Biden kicked off the Women for Biden-Harris tour in Atlanta on Friday and made a stop in Tucson, Ariz. earlier in the day Saturday. The tour is expected to make a stop in Wisconsin.
Biden used the event to highlight her husband’s accomplishments, including the historic appointment of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court and expanding access to maternal health services, and to take aim at his Republican opponent.
“Donald Trump is dangerous to women and to our families,” Biden said of the former president. “We simply cannot let him win.”
Biden was joined by SEIU President Michelle Maese and Biden for President Campaign Manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez.
U.S. Reps. Susie Lee and Dina Titus and Sen. Jacky Rosen also spoke at the event, remarking on a recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling that determined frozen embryos could be considered children under the law.
“This is a family issue. This isn’t just a woman’s issue,” Rosen said. “This is the future anti-abortion Republicans have worked towards.”
The ruling, which was released in late February, launched widespread concerns about access to in vitro fertilization.
Democrats and Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, have signaled support for IVF, but legislation to protect the treatment failed in the Senate this week after Republicans blocked a vote on the measure.
Several clinics in Alabama have paused IVF services after the ruling, citing uncertainty and fear about civil liabilities.
Speakers also encouraged attendees to add their signatures to a petition that could put reproductive rights on the ballot in November.
The petition, which was approved by a judge in January, would ask voters whether abortion access should be enshrined in the state’s constitution.
Protections for abortion up to 24 weeks are already codified in Nevada law, thanks to a 1990 referendum.
“It’s time we show them once again just what we can do by signing up to make sure reproductive rights are on the ballot in Nevada,” Biden said.
After the event at the union hall, Biden traveled to a restaurant in downtown Las Vegas, where she spoke to Latina mothers in a small roundtable discussion attended by the press.
Contact Taylor R. Avery at TAvery@reviewjournal.com. Follow @travery98 on X.