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As Democrats and Republicans seek to strengthen their base before the 2020 elections, many state laws prohibiting abortion have put the issue in the limelight and organized a possible court battle that could have consequences for any a generation.
The best Republicans have distanced themselves from an Alabama law banning abortion and providing no exceptions for rape or incest victims. But the governor of Missouri signed a similar bill on Friday. It prohibits abortions after eight weeks of pregnancy and provides no exemption for rape or incest.
Democrats have clearly placed the issue at the center of their concerns, hoping to widen the gender gap between parties and energize progressive voters around reproductive rights.
With new laws facing legal challenges that could ultimately lead to the Supreme Court, social issues and the judiciary play a prominent role in an election campaign centered on the economy and the economy. the character of President Donald Trump.
"The last days of unprecedented energy against abortion bans have shown that women around the world are watching with all their eyes wide open," said Amanda Thayer, Deputy Director of National Communications, Naral Pro. -Choice America, a group in the front line of the fight.
"This anti-choice movement is Trump's anti-choice movement, and it is clear that radical fringe is winning all internal debates on the way forward."
For Republicans, the abortion laws in Alabama and Missouri have reopened the debate over the party's position on abortion and the extent to which the Conservatives want to limit access.
Trump seemed to suggest that the Republican-controlled Alabama legislature had gone too far, tweeting"I am strongly in favor of life, with the exception of the three exceptions – rape, incest and protection of the mother's life – the same position adopted by Ronald Reagan".
Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy, the Republic's greatest congressional leaders, echoed these sentiments.
But Republicans lost the women's vote by 19 percent in the November mid-term elections, allowing Democrats to take the House and overthrow several legislatures. Two-thirds of women under 30 voted for Democrats. Independent women voted for candidates in the House of Democrats from 56% to 39%.
As a result, Democrats mobilized advocates for choice to increase women's participation as they attempted to limit Trump to a single term and to make further progress in Congress and the United States. in the States.
Democratic presidential candidates strongly condemned the laws in Alabama, Missouri and elsewhere, citing the risk of a Roe v Wade challenge, a 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States.
New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand said she would impose a litmus test for Supreme Court appointments, promising to name only judges who would pledge to defend Roe v Wade. New Jersey Senator Cory Booker said he would create a Freedom of Reproduction Office in the White House. California Senator Kamala Harris has raised more than $ 160,000 for pro-choice groups.
According to the Pew Research Center, public opinion in favor of legal abortion has remained stable over the past two decades. Republicans have focused their messaging efforts on late abortions, which are unpopular with the public but account for about 1.3% of all abortions in the United States.
Bill Kristol, a conservative commentator who has served in many Republican administrations, said the party has long been focused on his "desire to save more children, not to punish mothers or women." in general".
"This gradual and cautious approach has worked both on the substance and on the political level," said Kristol. "I think that smart pro-life leaders and advocates are really dismayed by what is happening in Alabama and elsewhere.
"It's a lot of hard work trying to present the case in favor of life in a friendly way. They come to believe in the abortion that it is an extremist and indifferent position. "
"The right to choose is undeniably at risk"
Democrats' attempts to qualify "extreme" abortion Republicans are reminiscent of the 2012 presidential election, when state-level inflammatory rhetoric has reached national discourse – with devastating consequences for the GOP.
Trying to explain his opposition to any abortion-related exception, Todd Akin, a Republican senate candidate in Missouri, infamously declared that it was rare for a woman to become pregnant as a result of "legitimate rape." ". Prominent Republicans, including candidate Mitt Romney, have called Akin to resign. But her remarks tarnished the party's reputation among voters and even encouraged her to hold training sessions on how to talk to women.
"It's very important that we discuss these issues," said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist who advised Florida senator Marco Rubio in his run for the 2016 presidential nomination. "Be insensitive to women who are considering an abortion or women who have had an abortion is a bad approach. "
The controversy surrounding the laws in Alabama and Missouri has so far had less to do with rhetoric than the purpose of these laws: to force the Supreme Court to reconsider the issue.
Democrats, who have long struggled to mobilize voters around issues of the federal judiciary, publicly warn of the future prospects of the Supreme Court that will overthrow the Roe v Wade case. This has been made more likely, they say, by Trump's two appointments to the bench, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, conservatives who moved the court to the right.
While some legal experts have questioned the fact that the Supreme Court would never overturn Roe v Wade in its entirety, others say that conservative judges will destroy abortion rights to the point that they will not be able to do so. it will become almost impossible to access parts of the country.
"The right to choose an abortion is unquestionably threatened by the new Conservative majority in the Supreme Court," said Elizabeth Wydra, Chair of the Progressive Constitutional Accountability Center.
"It is not because the threat to the right to choose can arise from a series of decisions to reduce reproductive rights rather than a total reversal of Roe that the threat is no less serious.
"It is possible to limit access to abortion or limit the right to choose to a point such that the right to abortion exists more in theory than in practice."
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