This Saturday marks one year since the Supreme Court’s conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade, ushering in an absolutely disastrous period for abortion rights. In the 12 months since 49 years of precedent was wiped out, abortion has been banned or restricted in 20 states. In Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia, near-total bans are in effect. In Georgia and North Dakota, the medical procedure is prohibited after six weeks, a period when many people do not even know they’re pregnant. (Florida governor Ron DeSantis has also signed a six-week ban that is pending court ruling.) In Oklahoma, a woman with a nonviable pregnancy putting her life at risk was told to sit in a parking lot until her situation got worse. In Tennessee, a woman required a lifesaving hysterectomy after she was denied a medically necessary abortion. According to the Associated Press, “More than 25 million women ages 15 to 44, or about 2 in 5 nationally, now live in states where there are more restrictions on abortion access than there were before Dobbs.” In two states, obtaining an abortion can result in prison time.
Not surprisingly, a majority of the voters in the country are deeply unhappy about all of this, with a majority of Americans saying abortion laws are too strict. Six in 10 say the Supreme Court was wrong to overturn Roe.
The response from Republicans willing to discuss the matter? A push to further gut reproductive rights. Per The New Republic:
.…on Tuesday, Representative Elise Stefanik indicated that she and her colleagues will introduce a bill banning abortion nationwide after 15 weeks. “The people are the most important voices” on abortion, Stefanik said, apparently not seeing the irony of her words. Speaking at an event to mark the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, hosted by the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Stefanik argued that the federal government does have a role in abortion legislation, particularly in “building consensus” nationally on the topic. “We should embrace this debate,” Stefanik said.
Stefanik’s announcement takes Republicans’ war on abortion rights to the next level. Last year, when Senator Lindsey Graham introduced a federal 15-week abortion ban just before the midterms, many of his colleagues slammed the move. The bill never made it to the Senate floor. But Stefanik is signaling that more Republicans are ready to embrace a national ban.
As TNR notes, “there is already a national consensus on abortion rights,” and it’s that abortion should be legal in “all or most cases.” Republicans, though, have a long history of not caring about the will of the people, and one person who definitely doesn’t care about what Americans want when it comes to abortion is 2024 presidential candidate Mike Pence, who on Friday insisted every GOP candidate must support a national abortion ban.
🚨WATCH: Mike Pence calls for every 2024 GOP candidate to support a nationwide abortion ban.
2024 Republicans are trying to out-MAGA each other on every issue and will not stop their anti-freedom rampage until abortion is banned across the country. pic.twitter.com/MkyP8CuGFR
— DNC War Room (@DNCWarRoom) June 23, 2023
Last month, Donald Trump—who, unlike Pence, actually has a chance of winning the GOP nomination—bragged that he’d managed to kill the national right to an abortion, saying: “After 50 years of failure, with nobody coming even close, I was able to kill Roe v. Wade, much to the ‘shock’ of everyone, and for the first time put the Pro Life movement in a strong negotiating position over the Radicals that are willing to kill babies even into their 9th month,* and beyond.** Without me there would be no 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 15 weeks, or whatever is finally agreed to. Without me the pro Life movement would have just kept losing. Thank you President TRUMP!!!” Then he claimed that in a second term, he’s going to “make a really great deal” on abortion.
*This is obviously not true.
**This would mean after the baby is born, so also not true.
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