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WASHINGTON -- President Biden said Tuesday that if Democrats keep the House and Senate in the upcoming midterm elections, his top priority in January 2023 will be to sign a bill codifying Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal nationwide.

"The choice and stakes are crystal clear, especially when it comes to the right to choose," Biden said at an event at the Howard Theatre hosted by the Democratic National Committee. When the Supreme Court issued the decision in June on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization -- the decision that overturned Roe -- "women across the country, starting with those in my house, lost a fundamental right," he said.

"I want to remind us all how we felt that day, when 50 years of constitutional precedent was overturned -- the anger, the worry, and the disbelief. The unbelievable fact that for the first time in our history, the Supreme Court didn't just fail to preserve a constitutional freedom; they actually took away a right that was so fundamental to Americans," Biden continued.

The results of that decision are already being felt, he noted. "In just 4 months, abortion bans have gone into effect in 16 states; 26.5 million women of reproductive age already live in states subject to these bans," he said. "Today in America, women who have been turned away from emergency rooms while having miscarriages -- losing wanted pregnancies, told they need to wait until they're sicker before they get the care they need. And there are survivors of rape and incest who've been denied access to health services in their home states and been forced to travel to states that do provide that care."

Furthermore, "patients are being denied prescriptions that they've been taking for years for conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis, because pharmacists are concerned that those drugs could also be used to terminate a pregnancy, so they're not giving them the prescriptions," Biden added.

In addition to the abortion-related consequences, "I've warned about how this decision risks the broader right to privacy for everyone" because it calls into question the Ninth Amendment, which deals with the right to privacy, he said. The right to privacy "has served as a basis for many more rights that are to come, and that we've taken for granted and are ingrained in the fabric of this country" -- for example, the right to use contraception or marry a same-sex partner.

Alongside the action in various states, "congressional Republicans are doubling down on their extreme positions," the president noted, pointing out that both House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) want to pass federal laws banning abortion nationwide. "If such a bill were to pass in the next several years," Biden said, his voice then dropping to a whisper, "I'll veto it." He raised his voice to a normal level and added, "But we can't let it pass in the first instance."

Biden listed several actions his administration has taken to protect reproductive rights in the wake of Dobbs, including protecting "a woman's right to travel from a state that prohibits abortion to a state that allows it and to protect the privacy of sensitive health information, preserving preventing states from tracking women who are seeking help, because that's what some will do."

However, "the only sure way to stop these extremist laws that are putting women's health and rights in jeopardy is for Congress to pass a law," Biden said. "The court got Roe right nearly 50 years ago and I believe Congress should codify Roe once and for all ... If you care about the right to choose, then you've got to vote. That's why the midterm elections are so critical."

Biden exhorted his audience to vote for Democrats in order to increase the Democratic majority in the Senate and keep the House Democratic-controlled. "Folks, if we do that, here's the promise I make to you and the American people," he said. In January 2023, "the first bill that I will send to the Congress will be to codify Roe v. Wade. And when Congress passes it, I'll sign it in January, 50 years after Roe first decided the law of the land. Together, we can restore the right to choose for every woman in every state in America, so vote ... We can do this if we vote, folks."

One of the most extraordinary parts of the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe, he added, "was when the majority wrote, 'Women are not without electoral or political power.' Let me tell you something. The court and the extreme Republicans who have spent decades trying to overturn Roe are about to find out -- they ain't seen nothing yet."

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