Abortion has been a tough issue for the Republican Party to navigate. As the proverbial pro-life party in a country that generally believes that abortion should be legal, Democrats have had an easy time painting Republicans as being outside the mainstream on the issue. However, by selecting Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) as her running mate, Kamala Harris made abortion a winning issue for the GOP this year.
We've long known that Democrats are the extremists on the issue of abortion, but they routinely deny it. They simultaneously deny being radicals on abortion but refuse to say what limits, if any, they would support on abortions. But last year, Walz signed two of the most extreme bills on abortion we've ever since. One bill made it legal to coerce women into having an abortion, and the other codified the right to an abortion up until the moment of birth and removed all protections for babies born after a botched abortion.
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As Dan McLaughlin explained over at National Review, the Protect Reproductive Options (PRO) Act "enshrined in Minnesota law a ''fundamental right to ... obtain an abortion' with no limit in time — all the way to the moment of birth — and immune from any more restrictive regulation by local governments. The usual suspects will claim that this does not establish an abortion right up to the moment of birth."
McLaughlin wrote, "the language of the PRO Act is sweeping and categorical, leaving no possible room for restriction of abortion at any time or for any reason. The resistance of Walz and his allies to any amendment limiting third-trimester abortions makes plain their intent on that score."
The other bill was Minnesota Senate Bill 2995, which "swept away nearly all the protective and modestly pro-life features of existing Minnesota law."
"S.F. 2995 is where we see the full scope of Walz’s pro-abortion vision: his determination to strip women of all protections for safety and informed consent and to place state funding firmly on the side of encouraging as many abortions as possible," McLaughlin wrote.
Naturally, with the passage of those laws, Minnesota became a beacon of abortion tourism. By the end of the year, 30% of all abortions that Planned Parenthood in Minnesota performed were done for women who came in from out-of-state.
Why is this significant? Because, as much as Democrats think that abortion is a winning issue for them, Americans aren't on board with abortion radicalism like this. According to Gallup, less than a third of Americans (29%) believe abortion should be legal in all circumstances. A whopping 70% of Americans either oppose abortion (20%) or support limits on it (50%). This proves that American views on abortion are more nuanced than Democrats want us to believe.
Abortion polling tells us that 60% of U.S. adults support legal abortion in the first trimester, but this drops to 28% in the second trimester and 13% in the third. This is backed up by data from the Guttmacher Institute, which shows that 89% of abortions occur in the first 12 weeks, with only 1.3% after 20 weeks. A majority also opposes using taxpayer money for abortions.
Related: What the Left Gets Wrong on Abortion Polling
Many Democrats, while publicly advocating for abortion, distance themselves from late-term abortions, including Harris, who has refused to give a cut-off for when abortions should be legal, while simultaneously dubbing GOP claims that Democrats support abortion up until birth as a mischaracterization.
Vice President Kamala Harris refuses to say at what week a baby should be protected by law.
— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) September 11, 2023
Watch this exchange.
Should it be when a baby feels pain?
When a baby has a heartbeat?
Birth?
She will not say. pic.twitter.com/1pIml5teOv
And Kamala just handed the GOP the late-term abortion talking point on a silver platter. The only question is: how will the GOP exploit this? Or will they at all?
