With the Mid-term Elections Hyper-Focused on Abortion, Some Politicians Are Acting Irrational
Have you heard about “Roevember”? It’s the catchy name for the upcoming midterm elections, to be held on Nov. 8. The moniker is designed to galvanize Democrats (and non-Democrats) who oppose the overturning of Roe v Wade on June 24 of this year.
The Dobbs decision made Roe v Wade unconstitutional and basically sent the law on abortion back to the states. Unless you have been on Mars for the past five months, you know that this caused an uproar in the United States. The red capes came out again, a la “The Handmaid’s Tale.” “Bans off Our Bodies” protests spread across the country. Crisis pregnancy centers were vandalized, and abortion clinics were threatened.
Amidst the chaos, sensible arguments emerged. Concerns about abortion as it relates to rape, incest, health of the mother, ectopic pregnancies and so on were discussed at great length. The story of a 10-year-old Ohio girl who traveled to Indiana for an abortion after being raped by an adult made national headlines. Restrictions on abortions in states like Texas have sent women across borders to terminate nonviable pregnancies. Demands have grown for the United States to offer an over-the-counter birth control pill.
These are important arguments that should be discussed with calm intellect, but that has not always been the case. Because when it comes to abortion, emotions run high, and some people can act irrationally. Put some politicians at the top of that list.
Just a few days ago, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer declared that she could “steal” jobs and workers from neighboring states with strict abortion laws if Michiganders passed Proposal 22-3, which would “amend the state constitution to provide that every individual has a right to reproductive freedom, including the right to make and carry out pregnancy-related decisions such as those concerning prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, sterilization, abortion, miscarriage management, and infertility care.”
“I want to go into Indiana and Ohio and start stealing headquarters and cultivating talent,” Whitmer said during a speech in her state. She added that she wants to “go to Purdue (University) and talk to every woman engineer, as well as Ohio State (University), and bring them to Michigan, where you can have full rights to make your own decisions about your health and your body and a great job.” If you know anything about Ohio State students, they typically don’t want anything to do with “that state up north,” but Whitmer believes abortion rights could change their minds.
It’s an interesting concept: building an economy around abortion rights. Even 20 years ago, this would have sounded ridiculous, but today’s politicians on both sides of the abortion debate are not afraid to make bold statements.
After the Supreme Court had officially sent Roe v Wade packing and declared that the abortion issue should be handled at the state level, Sen. Lindsey Graham trotted out a plan for a national ban on abortions after 15 weeks. “Our legislation, which bans abortion after 15 weeks gestation, will put the United States abortion policy in line with other developed nations such as France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, and other European nations,” Graham said. The problem is that most Republicans seemed to like the idea of the debate being handled by individual states. "Most of the members of my conference prefer that this be dealt with at the state level," House Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell said in response to Graham’s proposal.
Are politicians listening to what their constituents are telling them, or are they formulating notions based on what they think they should be saying? Furthermore, are they following the science when it comes to fetal development, or are they using questionable sources to drive home their points?
Stacey Abrams, the Democrat running to depose current Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, stated that a fetal heartbeat at six weeks was a “manufactured sound.” The amplified sound, she argued, is “designed to convince people that men have the right to take control of a woman's body." Tell that to women who have had an ultrasound at six weeks and seen the beginnings of a heart and heard the rapid thump.
According to the American Pregnancy Association, “Between 5 ½ to 6 ½ weeks, a fetal pole or even a fetal heartbeat may be detected by vaginal ultrasound. The fetal pole is the first visible sign of a developing embryo. This pole structure actually has some curve to it with the embryo’s head at one end and what looks like a tail at the other end.”
Abrams received some help in her statements about gestation via the The Guardian. In an article titled “What a Pregnancy Actually Looks Like Before 10 Weeks - in Pictures,” the publication used photos of aborted tissue at various stages of early gestation to show how undeveloped a fetus is. The images in the The Guardian article are from an organization called MYAbortion Network, which was formed during the COVID-19 pandemic in response to some states declaring abortion nonessential. The photos, then, are meant to show that there’s nothing really happening during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, so abortion should not be seen as the killing of a child.
Images from dozens of pregnancy sites reveal something different. True, the fetus is 1/6 of an inch during week six of gestation, but according to whattoexpect.com, a tiny face is beginning to take shape and “the cluster of cells that become your baby’s heart start to pulse.”
Evidently, a line has been drawn between what a pregnancy looks like when it’s unwanted vs. what it looks like when it’s wanted. This gives politicians a chance to stand one side of the line, using information gleaned from different sources to back their statements.
Armed with that information, politicians can feel empowered to carry their messages even further. Abrams stepped onto the stage during a Latto concert (she’s the opener for Lizzo) and shouted to the crowd, “I’m not going to interrupt your fun. I just wanted to remind you that If you believe it’s my body, my choice, I need your vote! This is our choice and this is our year!” It’s not unusual for entertainers to state their personal or political beliefs during concerts, but a politician taking the stage after a singer has belted out the song “P**sy” is unique.
It’s important to recognize that, just like everyone else, politicians can change their opinion on hot-button issues. Whether it’s for personal or political reasons is debatable. Mitt Romney was a staunch supporter of Roe v Wade as the law of the land during his unsuccessful 1994 campaign to unseat the late Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. By 2011, he had changed his mind (or as his detractors would say, he “flip-flopped”). "My view is that the Supreme Court should reverse Roe v Wade and send back to the states the responsibility for deciding whether they're going to have abortion legal in their state or not,” he said during an interview with Mike Huckabee.
President Joe Biden has probably flip-flopped the most of any politician when it comes to abortion. According to a New York Times article, “Mr. Biden entered the Senate in 1973 as a 30-year-old practicing Catholic who soon concluded that the Supreme Court went ‘too far’ on abortion rights in the Roe case. He told an interviewer the following year that a woman shouldn’t have the ‘sole right to say what should happen to her body.’ By the time he left the vice president’s mansion in early 2017, he was a 74-year-old who argued a far different view: that government doesn’t have ‘a right to tell other people that women, they can’t control their body,’ as he put it in 2012.
Biden has taken his pro-choice stance further since becoming president. Just before the midterm elections, Biden promised to codify Roe v Wade following a successful showing from Democratic candidates. “Your right to choose rests with you,” Biden said. “If you do your part and vote, Democratic leaders of Congress, I promise you, we’ll do our part. I’ll do my part. And with your support, I’ll sign a law codifying Roe in January.”
Then there are those politicians whose stance on abortion has been obscured by claims against their personal actions. Former football standout Herschel Walker, the Republican candidate for the Georgia senate, maintained over the last several months that he was 100% pro-life, with no exceptions for rape, incest or welfare of the mother. But during a debate with incumbent Democrat U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock in October 2022, Walker said he agreed with Georgia’s ban on abortion after six weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest, life of the mother in medical emergencies or pregnancies cannot successfully be brought to term. Walker also said he was representing the people of Georgia and would “stand with them.”
His detractors quickly saw Walker’s turnaround as directly related to allegations that he paid for at least two women to have abortions several years ago. Walker flatly denies the allegations. He agreed that a check made out to one of the accusers for $700 bore his signature, but insisted the check was not for the woman to obtain an abortion. A second woman who recently came forward said she felt “threatened and I thought I had no choice,” when Walker allegedly pressured her into having an abortion.
Walker maintained his innocence, commenting, "This was a lie a week ago and it is a lie today. Seven days before an election, the Democrats trot out Gloria Allred and some woman I do not know. My opponents will do and say anything to win this election. The entire Democrat machine is coming after me and the people of Georgia. I am not intimidated. Once again, they messed with the wrong Georgian."
With all of this political madness in full force before next week’s midterms, voters would be wise to remember that the squeaky wheels get the grease, while the quieter wheels - i.e., the moderate Dems and Republicans - don’t gain as much traction with the media. There are politicians with sensible attitudes toward abortion that align with a majority of Americans. Kari Lake, the woman running as a Republican for the governor’s seat in Arizona, commented during a radio interview, “It would be really wonderful if abortion was… rare and safe, the way they said it before.” (She also said “legal” in her comments but later claimed that she had only meant to say “rare” and “safe.”)
Some candidates stand firm in their convictions, even if it means immediate death for their campaigns. Mark Haugen dropped out of the race for U.S. House of Representatives in North Dakota after the pro-life Democrat claimed he was pushed out by others in his party. “Much of the far left’s concern is my pro-life position for which I have refused to compromise,” he said after withdrawing his candidacy.
With “Roevember”around the corner, candidates will likely ramp up their ads emphasizing their beliefs and denouncing their opponents’. That includes abortion. One would hope that they don’t lose sight of the important issues that are also on the ballot across the country, including inflation, the economy, energy, job growth and public safety.