Biden says the GOP doesn't understand the importance of advancing women's well-being: 'I mean it'
President Biden slammed Republicans for not understanding how advancing women's health not only improves the lives of women but also the prosperity of the entire nation. He made the remark during a first-of-its-kind conference on women's health research at the White House Wednesday afternoon.
"The fact is, the health of our moms, and grandmothers, sisters and daughters, friends and colleagues, affects not just women's well-being but the prosperity of the entire nation," Biden said at the conference. "That's a fact – we haven't gotten that through to the other team yet. I mean it – across the board."
Republicans, meanwhile, questioned whether Democrats understand the need to protect women, citing, in particular, Biden administration policies that sought to allow transgender women to use biological women's spaces and play on women's sports teams.
"Is any Democrat willing to stand up and defend girls and protect girls in private, in their private spaces, and protect girls in sports – not to force girls to participate in sports against men?" asked Tiffany Justice, the co-founder of the conservative nonprofit Moms for Liberty. "The idea that Democrats protect women or respect women is just absolutely nonsense."
Justice pointed to Biden's appointment of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, "who was unwilling to define what a woman was" when pressed on the matter during her confirmation hearings.
The Heritage Foundation's Sarah Perry, a civil rights attorney who has extensive experience litigating Title IX issues, noted that Biden's remarks had an underlying tone of "abortion is health care," which was a hot-button issue for Republicans during this year's election.
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"This is an administration that has made a name for itself in advancing the most radical ideologue policies," Perry said. "I mean, he's got a man in a dress at HHS telling us what health care is. That is the specious nature of those kinds of representations."
Colin Reed, a GOP strategist, added that the electoral success seen last month by Republicans was an indication that the American people reject these sorts of arguments from Democrats.
"The Democratic Party has become a one-trick pony trying to speak to voters facing across-the-board challenges," he said. "Until Democrats start meeting voters where they are at, they will continue losing elections."
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Karoline Leavitt, Trump-Vance Transition spokeswoman, noted that Trump campaigned on "making ALL Americans" healthy again, including women, adding that Trump "will deliver on that promise."
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response.