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ZorbaTHut  1yr ago (text post)   Edited 1yr ago   38204 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 12, 2022

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Lindsey Graham proposed a 15 week abortion ban in the Senate. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/13/abortion-graham-republicans-nationwide-ban/

This has to be an attempt to fire the base, but it seems like bad politics to me. I think abortion is an issue that has turned out to be a car the dog finally caught. Kansas declined to allow the legislature to restrict abortion. Here in MN, the Republican candidate for governor claimed he wanted to ban it in March; and just last week came out with an ad that it is a constitutional right in the state, therefore it's not an issue he's running on - after polling showed his ticket almost 20 points down. Now it's an issue again regardless of his efforts to move to other topics.

After Dodd, it isn't even clear that there is a federal issue to base a ban on, although the commerce clause is vast. Graham's bill lowers the ceiling for when abortion is legal, but sets no floor so states that still enact bans are able to do so. While this bill won't even get a hearing in the Senate, it does shed a pall on talk of federalism from this minority.

I suspect he is trying to deflate the "Republicans want to ban all abortions" attack from the Democrats and make abortion less of an issue in the midterms. Talking about abortion distracts from the economy and other issues that he probably sees as more favorable at winning over independents. The fact that his bill will never pass makes it almost a complete freebie too.

The lack of preemption over more restrictive state laws is probably closer to constitutionally correct than had it been included, but the lack of even an attempt to defang or prohibit restrictions before this time frame, or restrictions related to travel for abortion, make that unlikely to be successful.

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