Jill Biden: 'How could we go back?' after Roe is overturned

Jill Biden on Friday used the story of how one of her teenage friends ended a pregnancy at a time when abortion was illegal, including being declared mentally unfit, to illustrate what she says is at stake for women in November's elections.

“How could we go back to that time?” the first lady asked in a political speech to a women's conference sponsored by the House Democrats' campaign arm. She was talking about pre-1972, when the Supreme Court legalized abortion nationwide with its Roe v. Wade ruling.

Women no longer have a constitutional right to abortion after a conservative majority on the Supreme Court in June overturned its ruling in Roe, allowing individual states to decide whether abortion should be legal.

Democrats running for office at the state and federal levels hope opposition to the decision will give their candidates an advantage when voters go to the polls on Nov. 8.