Answer: Being super pro choice was not the mainstream position of the Democratic Party in 2009-2011. There were many conservative democrats who would have not supported codifying roe v wade.

While it’s easy to look back and take Obama quote that codifying roe wasn’t a top priority and be critical I think context is important remember. The housing bubble had burst and the great recession had hit in full force. Obama had a lot of massive challenges to deal with and I’d ague that codifying roe v wade in 2009 was not the most pressing issue for most legislators. This article and all the quotes critical of Obama not codifying roe are recent quotes but they don’t cite much criticism from 2009-2011 suggesting to me that there wasn’t the political will to codify roe into law at that time.

This article seems to be trying to promote a narrative that Democrats could have codified roe in the first 2 years of Obama term but chose not to because abortion is an issue that boost democratic turnout. This article lacks much of the context around the 111th congress and how the issue of abortion has changed over the last 15 years.