Republicans risk voter backlash as they advance attacks on abortion
Republicans in the US risk painting their party into a corner over abortion as conservative states plough ahead with increasingly draconian restrictions that are proving deeply unpopular with voters.
By overturning Roe vs Wade last year, the Supreme Court left it up to states to decide how they want to regulate abortion. That has touched off a flurry of high-profile moves to curb the procedure, the latest of which has come from Florida, where the state’s House of Representatives voted on Thursday to ban abortions past six weeks of pregnancy.
Nancy Mace, a member of Congress from South Carolina, has been one of the few Republicans to publicly criticise her party’s stance on abortion. “This is an issue that Republicans have been largely on the wrong side of,” Mace told CNN last weekend. “We have, over the last nine months, not shown compassion towards women, and this is one of those issues that I’ve tried to lead on as someone who’s ‘pro-life’ and just have some common sense.”
Some Republicans point to the fact that some state governors such as Brian Kemp in Georgia, Mike DeWine in Ohio, and even DeSantis in Florida, cruised to re-election last year despite their support for tighter abortion restrictions. But in other states, such as Michigan, and in congressional races across the country, Democrats were energised in opposition to the overturning of abortion rights in the 2022 midterm elections, helping them outperform expectations. The effect was particularly notable in a number of swing suburban areas that could be pivotal in 2024.
“Voters may be discouraged by the loss of their rights but they are not staying home,” said Christina Reynolds, vice-president for communications at Emily’s List, the abortion rights group in Washington. “We knew that abortion had an impact on voters, and what we’ve seen since 2022 is that Republicans have not learned that lesson.”
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Courtney Weaver
