The Economist May 21st 2022 United States 29
Abortion
Outrage and outliers
A
re democrats blowing the chance
thattheprobableoverturningofRoev
Wadehasgiventhem?Therevelationthis
monththattheSupremeCourthasvoted,
atleastprovisionally,tostrikedownthe
rulingthatin 1973 declaredabortiona con
stitutionalright has provided the party
witha rareopportunitytoenergisevoters
aheadofmidtermelectionsinNovember.
MostAmericansdonotwantRoetogo.
Yetinvowingtoprotectabortionrights,
Democratshaveattimesgonefurtherthan
maybepoliticallywise.OnMay11ththe
SenatevotedagainsttheDemocrats’Wom
en’sHealthProtectionAct(whpa),which
wouldprotectabortionaccessacrossthe
country.Holdingthevotewaslargelysym
bolic:thebillstoodnochance.Still,two
rareprochoiceRepublicansenators,Su
sanCollinsofMaineandLisaMurkowski
ofAlaska,anda Democrat,JoeManchinof
WestVirginia,votedagainstit,sayingit
wentfurtherthanRoe.
Though the bill broadly echoes Su
premeCourtrulings,protectingabortion
ondemanduntila fetusisviable(ataround
23 weeks) and allowing exceptions on
healthgroundslater,itwouldbanstates
fromenacting abortionregulations that
Roepermits.MsCollinssaidshealsodis
likedthebillbecauseit didnotallowCath
olichospitalstorefusetoperformabor
tions.ErinO’Brien,a politicalscientistat
theUniversityofMassachusetts,Boston,
reckonsitwouldbe“smart”forcongres
sionalDemocratstonowbackthemore
limitedabortionrightsbilldrawnupby
SenatorsCollinsandMurkowski.
Several Republicans have incorrectly
describedthewhpaashaving“nolimits”
onabortion.Yetthatfairlycharacterises
thesituationinatleastfourstates(Colora
do, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont) and
Washington, dc, that have passed laws
protectingtherighttoabortionthrough
outpregnancy,accordingtotheGuttmach
erInstitute,a prochoicethinktank.Such
laws are designedto make it easierfor
womenfromstatesthatwouldbanabor
tion—andthosethathavealreadysharply
curtailedaccess—toobtainit elsewhere.
Thoselawsstandinsharpcontrastto
therestoftherichworld.ManyEuropean
countrieshavea limitonabortiononde
mandof 12 or 14 weeks;onlytwo(Britain
and the Netherlands) allow it until 24
weeks.HenceRoeitselfiscomparatively
liberal:of 59 countriesthatallowabortion
ondemand,Americaisoneofonly seven
thatallowit after 20 weeksofpregnancy.
Pollingsuggeststhatsuchliberal abor
tionlawsareoutofstepwithpublic opin
ioninAmerica.A recentEconomistYouGov
pollfoundthatonlya quarterofall Ameri
cansbelieveabortionshould“always be le
gal” with “no restrictions”. Gallup polls
haverepeatedly foundthatmostAmeri
canssayabortionondemand should be
availableinthefirsttrimester(the first 12
weeks)butnotthereafter.
Howmight allthisaffect Democrats’
prospectsatthepolls?Theirfailureto push
amoremoderatelineonabortion could
harmthem,fortworeasons.
Extremereaction
First,itgivesRepublicansanopportunity
tocastDemocratsastheextremists. “It’s
all,youknow,abortionuptothepoint of
birth,”saidJohnThune,a Republican sena
torfromSouthDakota,afterthevote on the
whpa, echoingwhathasbecomethe Re
publicans’maintalkingpointonabortion.
Itwouldbehardtomakesuchclaims if
Democratshadnotdroppedthe“safe, legal
andrare”languageadoptedbyBillClinton
duringhispresidentialcampaignin 1992
(andechoedbyHillaryClintonin 2008).
JoeBiden,a practisingCatholic,has avoid
edspeakingaboutabortionmuch—or even
usingthewordinpublic,according to a
website,didbidensayabortionyet.org, that
istrackingthis—withtheresultthat more
extremevoicesinhispartyhavedomin
ated the debate on the controversial issue.
This leads to the second problem: vot
ers tuning out. Since Donald Trump swore
in 2016 that he would appoint conservative
justices to overturn Roe, the clash of ex
tremes in America’s abortion war has in
tensified. This is most evident in the rash
of cruel and extreme abortion laws intro
duced in conservative states. In Missouri,
lawmakers want to prevent women travel
ling out of the state to have an abortion. In
Louisiana, some lawmakers tried (and
failed) to classify abortion as homicide so
that prosecutors could bring criminal cas
es against women.
Yet on the left, campaigns like #Shout
YourAbortion, which encourages women
to recount their experiences (“Having an
abortion made me happy in a totally un
qualified way,” its cofounder has said),
seem unlikely to fire up the many Ameri
cans of both parties who think of abortion
as sometimes necessary but hardly desir
able. Protests outside the homes of Su
preme Court justices have elicited criti
cism from prochoice as well as prolife
Americans, in part because such action
could be counterproductive.
In the longer run, it is progressive
states’ relaxed abortion laws that may be
most damaging to the left. Though abor
tions in the second and third trimesters are
rare, and even in states where they are per
mitted some doctors set their own gesta
tional limits, they give antiabortion activ
ists an easy target. Kyleen Wright, the pres
ident of Texans for Life, says that if Roeis
overturned groups like hers will “work to
shore up constitutional protections in pro
life states, as the abortion advocates have
done in the most proabortion states”. But
they will also home in on proabortion
states, she says. “Late abortions are abhor
rent to voters pretty much acrossthepolit
ical spectrum, so that wouldresonate even
in states that protect abortion.”n
WASHINGTON, DC
Democrats are overreaching in their defence of abortion rights
Achallenge for the body politic