Melinda Gates endorses Biden for president, says stakes for women 'couldn't be higher'

WASHINGTON — Melinda French Gates announced Thursday that she will be voting for President Joe Biden in the 2024 election, saying that the “stakes for women and families couldn’t be higher” in an op-ed.

In the op-ed, published by CNN, Gates argued that former President Donald Trump’s first year in office “endangered the health of women, compromising their safety and robbing them of essential freedoms.” For instance, she referred to Trump’s decision to impose restrictions on the federally funded family planning program Title X.

“On the one hand, Trump has made it clear that, if reelected, he would do nothing to mitigate the damage his administration caused — but instead go further by allowing states to monitor and prosecute pregnant women,” she wrote.

Gates argued that Biden, on the other hand, preserved access to mifepristone and took steps to protect fertility treatments like IVF.

“While Trump has boasted about rolling back the rights of women, Biden understands that the future of our country depends on them. That’s why Biden has earned my vote. I urge anyone who cares about women and families to join me,” she wrote.

In 2015, Gates told Bloomberg that she and her then-husband, Bill Gates, “never endorse political candidates on either side of the aisle.”

“We’re going to work with whoever is in office,” she said at the time. Her endorsement this year is her first ever.

“This year’s election stands to be so enormously consequential for women and families that, this time, I can’t stay quiet,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Gates is estimated to have a net worth of $11 billion, according to Forbes.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Melinda Gates endorses Biden for president