GOP Sen. Braun says abortion laws should be left up to states

Indiana Sen. Mike Braun (R) said on Sunday decisions on abortion laws should be left up to state governments to handle, as the Supreme Court weighs a case that could overturn Roe v. Wade. 

During an appearance on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Braun told host Chuck Todd that letting states should decide whether to enact abortion laws was a practical solution to a highly charged political issue. 

“When it comes to things like abortion, I think it’s clear it’s time to turn it back to the states, let the diversity of this country show forth. It eliminates a lot of the contention to where we become the Hatfields and McCoys on many of these issues,” Braun said.

“The beauty of our system is that it’s federal. It’s got all of these different ideas. And when you try to nationalize, federalize the way the other side of the aisle is doing on more than just this, I think you’re constantly in that area of contention,” he added. 

Braun’s comments come less than a week after the Supreme Court held a hearing on Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban. A number of the conservative justices indicated that they will uphold the state law, which would overturn current legal precedent which ensures a woman’s right to abortion before viability, which is usually around 24 weeks of pregnancy. 

Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested during oral arguments on Wednesday that the Supreme Court should not be setting policies around abortion. 

“Why should this court be the arbiter rather than Congress, the state legislatures, state supreme courts, the people, being able to resolve this?” he asked the U.S. solicitor general, who argued against the Mississippi law. 

“And there’ll be different answers in Mississippi than New York, different answers in Alabama than California, because they’re two different interests at stake and the people in those states might value those interests somewhat differently,” Kavanaugh added. 

A number of Democrats have said the best way to protect abortions, give the majorly conservative Supreme Court, is to codify the decision in federal law.

“The answer may well be doing it through the political process now,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said on Sunday. “I don’t think that’s the right thing to do. But it may be the way to do it. And I think the best way to do it is not a patchwork of state laws, but to codify Roe v. Wade, put it into law.”