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Republicans had hoped the public reaction to the Supreme Court’s June ruling striking down the constitutional right to abortion would be a temporary break in a campaign season otherwise focused on the nation’s gas and grocery prices.
Instead, the abortion debate has morphed and grown over the past three weeks on terrain least favorable to the Republican Party — the question of whether abortion should be legal for rape and incest victims or mothers whose lives are threatened by pregnancy.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R), who is facing re-election, has so far declined to comment on the law he signed that prompted a 10-year-old rape victim this month to travel to neighboring Indiana for the procedure. In Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit Thursday to block Biden administration guidelines that require doctors to perform abortions when they believe the procedure is necessary to stabilize a mother in a “medical emergency.”
And in Washington, Democrats forced Republicans to oppose bills in the House and Senate that would ensure women could travel across state lines for the procedure after a June poll found 77 percent of Americans opposed the laws. which would prohibit such travel.
Controversies over maternal health and the effects of rape and incest have so far confirmed Democratic midterm strategists’ expectations that the ruling will be overturned Roe v. Wade, which has guaranteed a national abortion right for 49 years, will begin months of public debate, often state by state, over the least popular Republican effort to restrict abortion in all cases. They hope that concern over the legal changes will drive more Democratic voters to the polls and make voters pause before voting Republican.
Record shows doctor failed to report 10-year-old rape victim’s abortion
“I feel like they’re very good at risking people’s lives to make their political points.” That’s something voters see,” said Christina Reynolds, vice president of Emily’s List, a group that supports pro-abortion-rights candidates. “We think this can have a real impact in almost every competition we enter.”
Although the nation remains divided on abortion policy — with most voters favoring some restrictions while opposing outright bans — there is overwhelming support for allowing abortions in cases of rape or threats to the mother’s life. A March Pew Research Center poll found that 73 percent of Americans, including 62 percent of likely Republican voters, support legal abortion when the mother’s life is in danger. Sixty-nine percent of Americans, including 56 percent of likely Republican voters, said abortion should be legal when the pregnancy is the result of rape.
Among many leading anti-abortion groups, on the contrary, there is general agreement on banning abortion in cases of rape and incest, but including exceptions for threats to the mother’s life. But some major groups say they have backed legislation in states that choose to allow abortions in cases of rape and incest to gain enough political favor to push through new restrictions.
Abortion restrictions went into effect in roughly a dozen states after the court’s decision, all of which included an exception for the life of the mother. Most do not include an exception for rape or incest, except for South Carolina — which includes exceptions for both — and Mississippi’s trigger law, which has a rape exception, according to The Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.
“We understand that issues such as rape and incest are difficult subjects to address; however, it is our view that the value of human life is not determined by the circumstances of a person’s conception or birth,” nearly 20 anti-abortion groups — such as Students for Life of America and the Family Research Council — wrote in a 2019 letter to Rona Romney McDaniel, chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Rape and incest exemptions are often debated in state legislatures before lawmakers vote on a bill. But they often don’t make it into law, according to Elizabeth Nash, principal policy fellow at Guttmacher.
Shortly before the Supreme Court’s decision, the National Right to Life Committee released a model law restricting abortion for Republican state lawmakers to consider.
“We recommend that abortion be prohibited except to prevent the death of the pregnant woman, which has been the accepted policy choice of the pro-life movement since 1973 and many years before,” says an introduction to the model law written by James Bopp Jr. . , NRLC General Counsel and Associates. The text of the model law notes that “it may be necessary in some states to have additional exceptions” and suggests language around the rape and incest exceptions.
On Thursday, Politico published a story that quoted Bopp as saying that the 10-year-old rape victim in Ohio should have carried her pregnancy to term and would be required to do so under the group’s model law. However, in an interview with The Washington Post, he repeatedly insisted that he does not oppose states, including provisions on rape and incest.
“If the legislature decides they need or should have something in addition, like rape or incest, that’s a pro-life position, and we’ve put forward language that we think they should consider,” Bopp said.
Asked if the 10-year-old should have carried the pregnancy to term, he said: “I think abortion should be legal if it’s life-threatening, and in cases with proper precautions, rape and incest, and then it’s her decision in these circumstances.”
The 10-year-old girl in question traveled to Indiana in June for an abortion after she was more than six weeks pregnant, around the time when a fetal heartbeat can usually be detected. Ohio law prohibits the procedure after that point, including in cases of rape and incest. A 27-year-old man was arrested Tuesday in Ohio after he allegedly confessed to authorities that he raped the girl.
Many Republicans and conservatives, after initially raising questions about whether the case was genuine, have since attacked the Indiana doctor in the case, with Ohio Attorney General Todd Rokita (R) saying he wants to sue the doctor for failing to report the the case. However, records show that OB/GYN Caitlin Barnard reported the case as required by Indiana law.
“There will be more flashy stories,” said David Axelrod, a former strategist for former President Barack Obama. “It’s inevitable that the worst manifestations of these extreme laws will begin to emerge in many states, and every time they do, it’s another reminder of how far Republicans have come.”
Still, there is tension among Democrats over the path to strengthening abortion access. For weeks, some in the party have been pushing for the Biden administration to declare a public health emergency and expand the boundaries of what is allowed in the fight for abortion rights.
Two Long Weeks: Inside Biden’s Struggle to Respond to Abortion Ruling
Responding to the outpouring of criticism, White House communications director Kate Bedingfield told The Post that “Joe Biden’s goal in responding to Dobbs is not to satisfy some activists who are consistently out of step with the Democratic mainstream “.
On Friday, the Congressional Progressive Caucus released a list of new executive action that includes allowing undocumented people and those who help them to travel without risk of detention and requiring hospitals to perform abortions or risk losing their Medicare funding – policies that can be divisive.
JD Vance, the Republican candidate for the Ohio Senate, has faced $1.4 million in TV ads from a Democratic group, FF Pac. They include a spot calling Vance “one of the most extreme anti-abortion voices in America” because he said “two wrongs don’t make a right” when asked to explain his opposition to abortion in cases of rape and incest.
“It’s not about whether a woman should be forced to give birth to a child, it’s whether the child should be allowed to live, even though the circumstances of that child’s birth are in some way inconvenient or a problem for society,” Vance told Spectrum News in Columbus in September 2021
A Vance campaign spokesman said Friday that the candidate supports an exception only in cases where the mother’s life is in danger.
Republicans remain confident that abortion will not derail their hopes of taking control of the House and Senate this fall. In recent weeks, they have pointed to numerous studies that show concern about the economy and inflation at levels several times higher than abortion.
“While abortion is an issue people care about, the data clearly shows that it is not among the top issues that will drive voting behavior in November,” a recent memo from the Republican State Leadership Committee advised candidates. “Instead, this election will be about Biden’s failing economy.”
Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) on Thursday accused Democrats of trying to scare voters and that the debate is about more than the rights of expectant mothers.
“The conversation today is not just about women. There are two people in this conversation — a child with ten fingers and toes and a beating heart and DNA that is uniquely different from mom’s DNA or dad’s DNA,” he said in a statement on the Senate floor, objecting to a Democratic bill allowing interstate travel for abortion. “They have a nervous system. They feel pain. This is also a child in this conversation.”
The Texas debate turned on the difference between the state law and the federal rule. State laws have an exception to abortion bans when the mother is “at risk of death or poses a serious risk of significant…
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