Former President Joe Biden received an award from Planned Parenthood of Delaware on Thursday, Sept. 24, recognizing his years of support for abortion rights and what the organization describes as reproductive health care.
Biden received the 2026 Sonia Schorr Sloan Service Award during Planned Parenthood of Delaware’s fundraising gala at The Waterfall in Claymont, Delaware. Photographs from the event published through the USA TODAY Network confirm that former First Lady Jill Biden introduced her husband before he received the award.
According to LifeNews, Biden described the recognition as deeply personal because the award is named for Sonia “Sonny” Schorr Sloan, whom he identified as a “close friend and early supporter.”
“This is an incredible honor,” Biden told those gathered at the event, according to LifeNews.
Biden said Sloan played an important role in his political career, telling the audience that he would not have become a U.S. senator or president “if it weren’t for Sonny Sloan.”
His remarks also turned to the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade and ended recognition of a federal constitutional right to abortion.
According to LifeNews, Biden said Sloan would have felt “devastated” by the ruling, along with “anger and astonishment.”
“Following the Dobbs decision, as president, I tried to do what I knew Sonny would have done,” Biden said, according to LifeNews.
Biden then pointed to actions taken by his administration following the Supreme Court ruling.
“We took action. We signed executive orders to protect access to reproductive health care, including emergency medical care,” Biden said.
Biden’s characterization of abortion as reproductive health care stands in direct conflict with Catholic teaching on the dignity and protection owed to unborn human life. The Catholic Church teaches that human life “must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception” and has consistently rejected direct abortion as morally wrong.
The award comes as Planned Parenthood remains one of the country’s most prominent providers and advocates of abortion. Planned Parenthood itself lists abortion among the services available through its health centers, alongside services including contraception and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections.
During his remarks, Biden also urged supporters not to underestimate the political influence of women following the Dobbs decision.
“You have no idea how powerful women are in this country,” Biden said, according to LifeNews. “You are about to find out.”
Biden’s appearance highlights the sharp divide that continues to surround abortion in the United States more than four years after Roe was overturned.
For Catholics, the debate also carries a fundamental moral dimension. Church teaching holds that the dignity of every human person begins before birth and does not depend upon age, development, health or circumstance.
Biden, a Catholic, repeatedly supported legal abortion during his presidency, placing his administration’s abortion policies in conflict with the Church’s teaching on the protection of unborn human life.
Thursday’s award therefore represents more than recognition of a former president’s political career. It underscores the continuing national conflict over abortion and the profound disagreement between the abortion-rights policies Biden championed in office and the Catholic Church’s call to protect human life from conception until natural death.
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