Jack Bernard: Unlike the GOP, Democrats do not stick together on abortion issue
“I will also continue my fight to defend life and protect those who cannot protect themselves.”- Rep. Richard Hudson, May 8, 2022
U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson, whose 8th Congressional District includes Fayetteville, and others like him in the GOP are incorrect when they claim to be pro-life. They are not against capital punishment. They are not for gun control, which would save countless lives. They are simply against a woman being able to control her own body, including a fetus.
Hudson and those like him also have repeatedly shown that they do not care about those who cannot protect themselves. Once a child comes into the world, conservatives believe that he should be cared for by the parents, without government assistance. Conservatives are hypocrites on this matter, only caring about the fetus versus the child.
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The recently released, draft Supreme Court opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, that repeals the right to an abortion has been coming for decades. And to some extent the Democrats in the Senate have themselves to blame for not doing something before now, as explained below.
No one “likes” the abortion of a fetus, including the females having one. These women are having an abortion to prevent an unwanted child from being born. And it is not an easy decision for a woman to make.
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It’s a complex issue. However, it can be boiled down to the basics. The position on the left is “a woman has the inalienable right to control her body.” While the position on the right is “aborting a fetus is murdering a child.”
Before 1973, there were still abortions in every state. But they were being done illegally in back alleys. In some cases, women were being killed trying to abort their fetuses. So much for anti-abortion people being pro-life.
The U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973, via the Roe v Wade decision. It stopped the backroom procedures but simultaneously created a hot political issue for the GOP and conservatives.
Meanwhile, for the past 50 years the Democrats failed to pass abortion legislation legalizing the procedure in the Senate (see below), although it recently passed the House. Of course, passing a similar bill in the Senate would have meant side-stepping the filibuster rule, which requires 60 Senators to vote to debate a bill. Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia have bluntly stated that they will not violate the rule.
However, the GOP had no such problem during the reign of President Donald Trump. Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, supported by a GOP-dominated Senate, quickly abolished the filibuster for the approval of Supreme Court justices. Because of McConnell’s actions, three justices (pre-screened by Trump to ensure that they were against abortion) were ratified by the Senate. Neil Gorsuch was approved 54-45; Kavanaugh 50-48; and Barrett 52-48. All could have been stopped via the filibuster rule had it been in effect.
The Democrats have no such cohesion. If they would vote as a block like the GOP, abortion could be codified on the national level. However, that would require all Democrats to vote for it (and waive the filibuster rule) or for a few GOP votes to be obtained.
In fact, a few months ago the Democrats did try to pass an abortion rights bill. All Democrats except Manchin voted to allow debate. But 60 votes are needed, due to the filibuster rule (which Sinema and Manchin refuse to waive). All Republicans, including Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, both of whom are pro-choice, voted against it. This failure set the scene for the state-by-state battles that we will inevitably see going on for the next few decades.
Assuming the draft becomes finalized, the political question that remains is “how will this SCOTUS decision affect the balance of power?” Will women vote for Democrats running for the Senate and House based on this single issue? Or will anti-abortion voters be energized to vote?
Will the GOP win the House, Senate and presidency in 2024? And then ignore the filibuster rule again, passing a federal law abolishing abortion rights on the state level? Time will tell.
Jack Bernard is the former director of Health Planning for Georgia and a retired high-level executive with a healthcare corporation. He was one of the founders of Premier, Inc. in Charlotte. He is a widely published health reform columnist.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Jack Bernard: Unlike the GOP, Democrats do not stick together on abortion issue
