SEATTLE — First lady Jill Biden spoke about abortion in strikingly personal terms at a fundraiser in Seattle on Saturday, describing how she helped a friend recover from the procedure when it was illegal, a half century ago, as she assailed Republicans for trying to pass state and national abortion bans.
Speaking to an audience of about 200 at a private fundraiser for Sen. Patty Murray’s reelection campaign, Biden told a story from the late 1960s of a friend who got pregnant at age 17.
Abortion was illegal in Pennsylvania at the time. The only way for her friend to get the procedure, Biden said, was to get a psychiatric evaluation that declared her mentally unfit.
