Republicans Running Away From End to Abortion Rights, Congresswoman Says
Right's achievement to end women's rights proves unpopular
After decades of running on a promise to one day overturn Roe v Wade — and put an end to guaranteed abortion rights in the United States — Republicans seem to be running from their accomplishment after the Supreme Court last year did just that.
The right-wing bloc on the nation's highest court last summer struck down the landmark 1973 decision which guaranteed abortion rights nationwide for nearly half a century.
The high court only took such a momentous move after decades of Republican anti-abortion activity, including the ability of Republican President Donald Trump to install three right-wing justices during his single, four-year term.
The Supreme Court's ruling to deny a fundamental right to abortion set off a political earthquake, one which actually has not typically been kind to Republicans as most Americans oppose the end to abortion rights, according to most public opinion polls.
Opposition to an end to abortion rights fueled Democrats streaming to the polls in November turning the so-called “red wave” Republicans had hoped for in those elections into a trickle. Democrats actually expanded their majority in the US Senate, and while Republicans succeeded in taking control of the House, they did so by one of the tiniest margins in modern history.
This is causing Republicans — including presidential hopefuls Nikki Haley and Trump himself — to downplay their success against abortion rights, according to a Democratic congresswoman in her second term.
“Well, they are running away from it because the extremism and the popularity of the right to control our own bodies is a fundamental right. It’s a human right, it’s a constitutional right and the upending of Roe v Wade upended over 50 years of settled law and as soon as they did it, the American people shouted that this is not what we want,” said Rep Melanie Stansbury, of New Mexico. “In fact, the entire world did, and so now, of course, the extreme GOP is trying to distance themselves from the very policies that they’ve spent decades espousing and trying to put forward.
“But you know I’m lucky enough: I actually represent a state in New Mexico, where abortion care remains safe and legal, and where we’re actually helping those states around us [access legal abortions], and that is what the American people want,” Stansbury added. “That is what they’re asking us to do is to protect our democracy, to protect our rights and to protect our right to control our own bodies.”
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