Former President Joe Biden received an award on Thursday from Planned Parenthood, an organization known for performing a significant number of abortions each year.
Biden, who is 83, attended the Planned Parenthood of Delaware’s fundraising event, the “Chocolate and Champagne Gala,” where he was honored with the Sonia Schorr Sloan Service Award. His wife, Jill Biden, presented the award—named after a passionate abortion rights advocate and close friend of Biden—to her husband as the audience applauded.
“This is an incredible honor,” Biden expressed to the audience, adding that without Sloan, he wouldn’t have reached the positions of U.S. senator or president.
During what can be described as a somewhat incoherent and meandering speech, Biden criticized the Supreme Court for its decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion that had been established in the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. He mentioned that Sloan was one of the first people who came to his mind when the ruling was annulled.
“She would have felt devastated,” he remarked, expressing sentiments of “anger and astonishment.” He added that she would not have been cowed and wouldn’t have spent any time worrying.
“After the Dobbs decision, as president, I attempted to act in ways I knew Sonny would have supported,” he stated. “We took decisive steps, signing executive orders to secure access to reproductive healthcare, including emergency services.”
Notably, during Biden’s administration, Planned Parenthood recorded its highest number of abortions. Their latest report indicated that 434,450 abortions were carried out in 2023 and 2024.
Additionally, the organization received unprecedented government support, totaling $832 million from grants, contracts, and Medicaid reimbursements—an increase of $39.8 million since the last report.
Biden wrapped up his remarks by affirming to the enthusiastic audience of abortion rights supporters that women hold significant political power.
“You have no idea how powerful women are in this country,” he stated. “You are about to find out.”
The former president, whose legacy includes facilitating the mail-order abortion system that has made abortion pills widely accessible, did not address the estimated 63 million unborn lives lost to abortion from the 1973 Roe ruling up until the 2022 Dobbs ruling, nor the numerous abortion-related deaths that have occurred since.
