How Republicans pass abortion bans most Americans don’t want

Legalized abortion in some form is widely supported, but gerrymandered districts allow politicians to push extreme measures through

Sam Levine in New York
Wed 8 Jun 2022

On 10 April 2019, the Ohio legislature easily passed SB 23, a bill that banned abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.

It was a move that should have carried considerable political risk in Ohio, a state closely divided between Democrats and Republicans. There wasn’t widespread support for the bill – polling showed public opinion was nearly evenly split over the bill (a poll after the bill was passed showed a majority opposed it), John Kasich, a previous Republican governor, had twice vetoed the bill, saying it was unconstitutional, and it had stalled in the legislature for years.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/07/gerrymandering-abortion-roe-v-wade-ohio


What President Biden’s State of the Union Says About the Politics of Abortion

BY ABIGAIL ABRAMS
MARCH 2, 2022

Following abortion rights groups’ efforts to pressure President Joe Biden into speaking out in favor of reproductive rights in America, the President mentioned the topic just briefly on Tuesday during his first State of the Union address.

“The constitutional right affirmed by Roe v. Wade—standing precedent for half a century—is under attack as never before,” Biden said during the speech. “If we want to go forward, not backward, we must protect access to health care. Preserve a woman’s right to choose.”

Continued: https://time.com/6153102/biden-abortion-state-of-the-union/


Justice Kavanaugh’s Empty Democratic Promise

Returning abortion to the states doesn’t put power into the hands of voters in much of the country.

By David Litt, The Atlantic
DECEMBER 7, 2021

“The Constitution is neither pro-choice nor pro-life.” So said Justice Brett Kavanaugh, not once, not twice, but three times during last week’s oral argument in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. It’s the judicial equivalent of a poll-tested line, an attempt to message the overturning of Roe v. Wade as fundamentally pro-democratic, something for voters to decide. A woman’s right to end a pregnancy “should be left to the people, to the states, or to Congress,” Kavanaugh argued.

Kavanaugh’s talking points reflect a political reality: Americans like the idea of self-government. When asked, three-quarters believe that their elected officials should represent the majority’s views. By claiming to be “scrupulously neutral,” another phrase Kavanaugh repeated in oral argument, conservatives are implying that overturning Roe is a small-d democratic position to take.

Continued: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/12/false-democratic-promise-returning-abortion-states/620907/


How America’s broken democracy led to our abortion crisis

The majority of Americans support legal abortion. Redistricting has allowed extremism to flourish without fear of repercussion

Meaghan Winter

Mon 25 Oct 2021

America is at a crossroads when it comes to abortion. In 2021, state
legislatures have passed an unprecedented 106 anti-abortion bills. State
lawmakers in five states are preparing legislation similar to Texas’s SB 8, an
effective total abortion ban that enshrines a new kind of vigilantism directed
at medical providers and private citizens.

In this dangerous moment, supporters of legal abortion must understand that
raising our voices is not going to change anything unless we also push for
major, immediate democratic reforms including ending the filibuster, enshrining
federal voting rights, expanding the supreme court and establishing fair
redistricting.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/25/americas-anti-abortion-movement-has-a-secret-dirty-weapon-gerrymandering


USA – An overlooked consequence of the Supreme Court’s gerrymandering rulings: Stricter abortion laws

An overlooked consequence of the Supreme Court’s gerrymandering rulings: Stricter abortion laws

By Reis Thebault
Oct. 22, 2019

For the next two months, petitioners will swarm Michigan ahead of late-December deadlines. They’ll knock on doors, flock to fairs and hand out pamphlets after church. Every day will be valuable, and every signature will get them a little bit closer to their goal: making it harder for women to get abortions in their home state.

If the volunteer fleet is successful, Michigan will join the list of states that have tightened restrictions on abortion rights this year. But, unlike those other states, which have overwhelmingly conservative governments, Michigan could pass antiabortion laws without the governor’s approval and without the support of a majority of voters.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/10/22/an-overlooked-consequence-supreme-courts-gerrymandering-rulings-stricter-abortion-laws/


USA – How Gerrymandering Leads to Radical Abortion Laws

How Gerrymandering Leads to Radical Abortion Laws
Georgia's "fetal heartbeat" bill never would have passed if the state legislature truly reflected the voters' political preferences.

By David Daley
May 14, 2019

Stacey Abrams still hasn’t conceded that she lost to Brian Kemp in last year’s gubernatorial race in Georgia, and perhaps justifiably so. Kemp, formerly the secretary of state there, administered his own election, shuttered precincts in black communities, and presided over a last-minute voting roll purge that targeted predominantly minority voters. Despite all that help, he eclipsed Abrams by fewer than 55,000 votes—another sign of how purple Georgia has become.

Last week, however, the state legislature enacted—and Kemp signed—one of the most extreme “fetal heartbeat” abortion prohibitions in the nation. HB 481, which declares that “unborn children are a class of living, distinct persons,” limits abortions to the first six weeks of pregnancy. If the law is allowed to take effect in January—rather than being held up in the courts—women who miscarry could be investigated by the state to determine whether their pregnancy ended unintentionally or with the help of a doctor or an abortion pill.

Continued: https://newrepublic.com/article/153901/gerrymandering-leads-radical-abortion-laws