Abortion Will Be A Hot Topic In Richmond This Year, Just Don't Expect Much To Change
Published January 12, 2023 at 3:11 PM EST
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Abortion is likely to be one of the hottest topics the General Assembly will consider this year. But, don't expect much to happen as a result.
Both sides in the abortion debate will tell you that polling shows the public is on their side. Speaker of the House Todd Gilbert points to polling that shows most people favor some kind of restriction if there’s exceptions for life of the mother, rape or incest.
"The public is looking for us to be reasonable about this issue and looking for us to find a place where they think reasonable restrictions should lie," Gilbert says. "I think the vast majority of the polling of the public would tell you that people favor reasonable restrictions on abortion. They don't favor this constitutional amendment, which would allow for that to occur right up until the moment of birth."
The amendment he’s talking about would write current Virginia legal protections into the state Constitution, which supporters say allows for abortion through the second trimester, but not up until the moment of birth.
House Democratic Leader Don Scott says the poll that really matters is at the ballot box, where voters in Virginia Beach recently elected a candidate supporting abortion rights.
"How many times does the governor and politicians across the aisle need to be told by Virginians no," Scott asks. "They do not want an abortion ban. A ban is dangerous for women and it's downright wrong."
Republican efforts to create a 15-week ban in the House will likely be defeated in the Senate. And Democratic efforts to protect abortion rights in the Senate will likely be defeated in the House.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
House Republicans Push Abortion Legislation Despite Midterm Missteps
U.S. News & World Report 1 day ago Kaia Hubbard
© (Alex Brandon/AP) The suns begins to set on the Capitol building after the sixth failed vote to elect a Speaker of the House and convene the 118th Congress in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)House Republicans added abortion to their list of first-week priorities in their new majority on Wednesday, approving a pair of bills on the topic despite pushback from some members of their party who have warned that the issue is unpopular and contributed at least in part to their disappointing showing in the midterm elections.
One of the bills would prohibit health care providers from “failing to exercise the proper degree of care in the case of a child who survives an abortion or attempted abortion.” Dubbed the “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act,” the legislation addresses a rare occurrence that opponents say is already covered by existing laws that protect infants at birth.
“It has always been against the law to intentionally kill or harm a newborn infant, whatever the circumstances of its birth,” Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York said on Wednesday, adding that, although the bill does nothing new to protect infants, “it could put the lives and health of newborn infants at risk” by complicating a provider’s ability to intervene and interfering with their judgment.
But Republicans argued that the legislation should be a no-brainer.
“What should be undisputed is the care of a child who is born alive after abortion,” Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio said.
GOP Lawmakers, along with three Democrats, also voted to approve a resolution that would express Congress’ condemnation of recent attacks on facilities that oppose abortion. While Republicans called it “common-sense legislation,” Democrats said the legislation is a “political ploy” and criticized it for not extending the condemnation to attacks on facilities that provide abortions, arguing that it “sends a signal” that violence against abortion providers and facilities is justified.
The measures, neither of which is expected to pass in the Senate, come despite concerns within the party that the abortion issue is a damaging one with voters after an expected “red wave” in the midterm elections failed to materialize, while exit polls and analysts pointed to abortion as the GOP’s downfall.
Perhaps the most recent evidence of the issue’s effect on the electorate was in a special election on Tuesday night, when Democrat Aaron Rouse – who campaigned on abortion – flipped a seat in Virginia’s Senate.
Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who warned her party against going too far on the issue ahead of the midterms, criticized the decision to bring up legislation on abortion so early in the new Congress.
“We learned nothing from the midterms if this is how we're going to operate in the first week,” Mace told Politico earlier this week. “Millions of women across the board were angry over overturning Roe v. Wade.”
GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania told MSNBC on Wednesday he agrees with Mace, adding that “our policies ought to reflect the will of the people in America.”
Even former President Donald Trump, who has also been a subject of his party’s ire for his role in the midterm elections, put the blame on abortion, suggesting earlier this month that some of those in his party were too extreme on the issue.
Indeed, Democrats latched on to how abortion contributed to their better-than-expected outcome in the midterm elections, pointing on Wednesday to the issue as a losing one for Republicans.
“In every state where abortion rights were on the ballot last year, Americans voted to protect life-saving reproductive care,” Democratic Rep. Lori Trahan of Massachusetts said. “After such a resounding defeat for anti-abortion politicians, you would think that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would have gotten the message.”
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Pence Says GOP Candidates Must Stake Out Clear Abortion Position
Former Vice President Mike Pence argued that his party must embrace an anti-abortion position that puts Democrats on defense in the aftermath of last summer’s Supreme Court ruling, a departure from former President Trump’s reading of the issue.
“What I saw in the last election was that men and women who clearly articulated their position on the sanctity of life did quite well in their election,” Pence said in an exclusive interview with The Hill on Wednesday.
“But Republican candidates who allowed Democrats to take attention away from their radical position on abortion and define the Republican position did not fare as well,” Pence continued.
“And so I think going forward, it’s going to be incumbent on the men and women of our party to stand without apology for the sanctity of human life, to stand on that principle of the unalienable right to life, but also to express compassion for women that are facing crisis pregnancies.”
The former vice president has been among the most outspoken conservatives in calling for states to enact abortion restrictions following the court’s ruling last summer overturning Roe v. Wade.
His comments to The Hill underscore the debate within the GOP about how to handle abortion moving forward, after some in the party said it cost them winnable races in November’s midterm elections.
Trump wrote last week on Truth Social that he was not to blame for the party’s underwhelming midterm performance, which saw Republicans only narrowly retake the House and lose ground in the Senate.
“It was the ‘abortion issue,’ poorly handled by many Republicans, especially those that firmly insisted on No Exceptions, even in the case of Rape, Incest, or Life of the Mother, that lost large numbers of Voters,” Trump wrote. “Also, the people that pushed so hard, for decades, against abortion, got their wish from the U.S. Supreme Court, & just plain disappeared, not to be seen again.”
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) told reporters this week that the GOP has been “tone-deaf” on abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe. She said the party should not just pay lip service to the anti-abortion movement, but look for viable policies to bring down the number of abortions like increasing access to birth control.
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But conservatives like Pence, as well as advocacy groups that oppose abortion, have asserted that Republicans struggled with the abortion issue not because of out-of-step views, but because their candidates tried to dodge the topic and didn’t force Democrats to articulate their own position.
“The approach to winning on abortion in federal races, proven for a decade, is this: state clearly the ambitious consensus pro-life position and contrast that with the extreme view of Democrat opponents,” Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America said in a statement last week that was shared by Pence.
“There was ALSO a profound midterm lesson for future federal candidates: those who adopted the Ostrich Strategy on abortion lose,” the group added.
Pence has said in recent months that states should enact laws restricting abortion access after the Supreme Court struck down the precedent set by Roe guaranteeing abortion access, and he said he would have supported a proposed 15-week national abortion ban if he were a member of Congress.
In Wednesday’s interview, the former vice president called the appointment of three conservative Supreme Court justices one of the “great accomplishments” of the Trump administration. All three of those justices — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — voted to overturn Roe v. Wade last summer.
Pence’s long-held opposition to abortion would likely be a key selling point for social conservatives and evangelical voters if he were to run for president in 2024. The former vice president told The Hill he will continue to consult with his family in the coming months before deciding on whether to launch a campaign.
But whether or not he is on the ballot, abortion is likely to play a major role in the 2024 presidential race. Pence emphasized the need for Republicans to put forward candidates willing to tackle the issue head on.
“I think it all begins with having leaders that are willing to stand up and state clearly where they are on the right to life,” Pence said. “And I think the elections proved that.”
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