President Joe Biden campaigns in Florida, blasts Trump on reproductive rights

April 23 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden campaigned Tuesday in Florida where he blasted Donald Trump over abortion rights and what he called the former president's plans to "step off the world stage."

Biden spoke at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa during an invitation-only campaign rally where he warned the crowd about the state of the world if Trump is elected.

"If the United States stepped off the world stage, like Trump wants us to do, who would lead the world? Who would lead the world?" Biden queried, as he revealed what world leaders have said to him.

"Every international meeting I attend with other heads of state -- whether it's the G7, the G20, all these international meetings -- before I leave, literally, almost every one will walk up to me and wait to get me in a corner alone and grab my arm and say, 'You've got to win,'" Biden said.

"Not because of me, but because of the alternative," Biden added. "And they say, 'Because my democracy depends on it,' meaning their democracy."

Biden also slammed Trump for Florida's impending six-week abortion ban, which takes effect May 1 after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it into law last year.

"This extreme Florida law is going to impact 4 million women in the state," Biden said. "Let's be real clear. There's one person responsible for this nightmare. And he's acknowledged and he brags about it -- Donald Trump."

The Biden campaign has targeted Trump for approving three conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court who voted in favor of overturning federal abortion protections established by Roe vs. Wade.

"Trump will do everything he can to ban abortion nationwide," Biden's spokesperson Michael Tyler said on a call with reporters. "Whenever Trump has power, he's used it to take away rights from women."

The law, set to take effect next week, bans abortion after the gestational age of the fetus reaches more than six weeks, a period before most women even know they are pregnant.

It includes exceptions for cases in which a pregnancy resulted from rape, incest or human trafficking but requires a physician to report the crime to the central abuse hotline.

Trump and Republicans have dominated statewide Florida politics for the past two presidential cycles, with the former president winning the Sunshine State twice. Republicans also control the governor's office, secretary of state, attorney general and both chambers of the state legislature as well as both U.S. Senate seats and 20 of the state's 28 seats in the U.S. House.

Tyler said, though, that the Democrats are convinced the abortion issue could swing the state back toward the Democrats.

"The idea that Donald Trump has the state in the bag could not be further from the truth," said. "He owns not only the state of abortion rights across the country but he owns the restrictions that we're seeing play out in Florida."

"And so, yes, that means that there's an opportunity for us, and we're taking it very seriously."