One of the major issues of the midterm elections in the United States will be, in the event of a victory for the Democrats, to guarantee the right to abortion for all.
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Joe Biden promised Tuesday, October 18 that the first law on the agenda of the United States Congress, in the event of a Democratic victory in the midterm elections, would guarantee the right to abortion. “And if Congress adopts it, I will sign it in January,” continued the president, pledging on the contrary to pose his “veto” if the Republicans won the November 8 ballot and banned abortion at the federal level. . Despite growing dissatisfaction with inflation and the risk of recession undermining his party’s chances of such success, the president is banking on the outrage sparked by the Supreme Court’s abortion flip-flop to stock up on votes left and center.
On June 24, the high court reversed its Roe v. Wade, who for half a century had guaranteed the right of American women to terminate their pregnancies, and gave freedom to each state in terms of abortion. “Remember what you felt that day (…) the anger, the concern, the disbelief”, launched Joe Biden during a speech before the Democratic Party in Washington, denouncing “the chaos” that followed this decision.
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“In four months, laws prohibiting abortion have come into force in 16 states”, he continued, and “the elected Republicans in Congress have gone further” by promising to adopt such a ban at the federal level if they took control of Congress after the November 8 elections. “But let’s be clear: if such a law were to be adopted in the years to come, I would veto it,” thundered the tenant of the White House. But the best way “to stop these extremist laws” would be to pass legislation at the federal level “to set in stone Roe v. Wade once and for all”.
“For the moment, we are missing a few votes,” he acknowledged, calling on voters to send more elected Democrats to the Senate and the House of Representatives. “If you do, I promise you that the first piece of legislation I send to Congress will be to codify Roe,” he continued. “And as soon as Congress has adopted it, I will sign it, in January, for the 50th anniversary” of this judgment.
Only 5% of Americans consider abortion rights a priority
A bill to this effect has already been passed by the Democratic majority of the House of Representatives. The text is slipping in the Senate, where a qualified majority of 60% would be needed to adopt it due to a procedural mechanism called “filibuster”. Joe Biden has long been loath to change this rule meant to encourage compromise between the two major parties. At the end of June, he said he was ready to make an “exception” and lift it to guarantee the right of American women to have an abortion. But two of the 50 Democratic senators do not want to touch the “filibuster”. Since the upper house has 100 elected members, the Democrats would have to win two new seats to change the situation, while maintaining their majority in the lower house.
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The objective seems very ambitious, especially since the mid-term elections are generally an opportunity to sanction the party of the president. But the Democrats were galvanized by a referendum organized in early August in the very conservative state of Kansas, where voters mobilized massively to reject a constitutional amendment hostile to abortion. However, polls show that abortion is no longer the priority of Americans.
About 26% cite the economy as their main concern and 18% inflation, far ahead of abortion at 5%, according to a survey published this week by the Siena Institute with the New York Times. Even more worrisome for Democrats, independent female voters also appear to have revised their preferences. In September, Democrats were 14 points ahead of Republicans in this segment of the electorate, they are now 18 points behind.