It is a proposal that is already almost buried: the chances are slim to advance in the United States Senate, now controlled by the Democratic Party, a project to ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy throughout the country, proposed this Tuesday (13) by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.
But the idea is not exactly to approve the proposal — at least not for now —, but to unite the Republican Party and force the party to take a stand on the issue. It is still a matter of timing, given that the project was presented less than two months before the midterm legislative elections, at a time when the defense of the abortion ban proved to be more thorny than previously thought.
The story began when the Supreme Court ruled in June that the voluntary termination of pregnancy is not a right guaranteed by the Constitution, a long-standing demand of sectors of the Republican Party.
But the defense of the ban turned out to be risky in an election year, even though some states managed to tighten the rules – such as West Virginia, which, also on Tuesday, approved by a large majority the ban on abortion in almost all cases. The first big test for Republicans, however, came in early August, when voters in the conservative state of Kansas rejected, with 59% of the vote, a referendum to allow the local legislature to change rules on the procedure.
A Pew Research Center poll the previous month showed that six out of ten Americans rejected the change in the Supreme Court’s ruling and preferred that abortion remain a constitutionally guaranteed right.
If these weren’t enough signs, confirmation of the importance of the topic came at the beginning of September. A survey by the American newspaper Wall Street Journal pointed to abortion as the main motivator of votes in the November election, more important even than the country’s record inflation, border security, gun violence or the FBI operation against former President Donald Trump. In the same survey, 60% of respondents said they defend the legality of abortion in all or most cases.
The campaign then changed its tone. The threat that Republicans will not get as large a majority as imagined in the House and the risk of not even gaining control of the Senate have led a number of candidates to soften or review their positions on the issue.
One of the most emblematic cases is that of Blake Masters, a candidate for the Senate from the state of Arizona supported by Trump. A supporter of the abortion ban, he says on his website that it is necessary to “protect babies and not let them be killed”, but he has recently promoted ads on social networks in which he softens the speech and says only that he supports the ban on “late abortion. “.
Among male voters, Masters appears 8 points ahead of the Democratic candidate, according to a Fox News poll. Among women, the Republican plummets and is 22 points behind his opponent.
To bridge the gap, Masters’ election program now features his wife, Catherine, praising her husband’s qualities. It is a strategy à la Michelle Bolsonaro, the Brazilian first lady, who has tried to ease resistance among the female electorate against Jair, a conservative candidate seen as more aggressive, particularly against women and social minorities.
This tactic has been adopted in different parts of the US, especially in the so-called pendulum states, which do not have a clear preference between Democrats or Republicans and which can change the political chessboard with each new election cycle.
What worried Republicans most in the Wall Street Journal poll was the cut between white women and suburbanites, a group that has less clear partisan preferences and can vote either left or right. Among them, 52% said they would prefer a Democratic candidate, against 40% who said they would prefer a Republican. It is precisely this segment of the electorate that candidates considered more aggressive are now targeting, in an effort to soften their image.
In Ohio, bestselling author and Republican Senate candidate JD Vence, also backed by Trump, doubled down on connecting with the female electorate and aired a 30-second ad in which his wife highlights her origins and praises the fact. that, with absent parents, he was “raised by his loving grandmother”. A speech similar to that of the wife of Jaime Laxalt, in Nevada, which highlights the fact that her husband was raised only by his mother.
In Colorado, Republican Senate candidate Joe O’Dea, who is trying to oust Democrat Michael Bennett from Congress, has put his wife and daughter in ads, in which they discuss the candidate’s support for abortion rights in certain cases. He has criticized former President Trump since he won the primaries for the party and presents himself as a moderate candidate.
It turns out that O’Dea voted in 2020 on a state proposal – which was ultimately rejected – to prevent termination of pregnancy after 22 weeks of pregnancy, even in cases of rape or incest, which her opponent has been exploiting.
Graham’s attempt on Tuesday to establish a rule on the 15th week of pregnancy also tries to give the impression of restraint — as the law would be less restrictive than state legislation that bans abortions in most cases.
According to the republican, the idea is “consistent with the rest of the world” and has even more flexible limits than some European countries, such as Spain (14 weeks) and France (12 weeks).
The White House reacted quickly. “This bill is totally out of step with what Americans believe,” said Joe Biden’s administration. The note adds that while the administration strives to take important steps for the country’s future, “Republicans in Congress are focused on taking away rights from millions of women.”
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