Pavlich: Americans not where Dems want them to be on abortion
It’s been just over two weeks since the United States Supreme Court ruled in 5-4 decision to return abortion laws to the states by overturning Roe v. Wade and striking down Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The ruling expanded democracy by allowing the people of all 50 states to determine, through their state representatives, what kind of abortion laws should be passed and enforced.
Since the draft opinion leaked in early May, Democrats on Capitol Hill have expressed their outrage.
“I am angry. I am angry because an extremist United States Supreme Court thinks that they can impose their extremist views on all of the women of this country — and they are wrong. I am angry because we have reached the culmination of what Republicans have been fighting for, angling for, for decades now and we’re going to fight back,” a distraught Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) screamed on the steps of the Supreme Court.
But Democrats didn’t always have this rabid, pro-abortion agenda. There’s been a radical shift away from “safe, legal and rare” to abortion on demand, at any time, for any reason.
“I do not view abortion as a choice and a right. I think it’s always a tragedy,” then-Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) said in 2006.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who hosted a hearing about post-Roe America this week on Capitol Hill, held a similar view — and advocated as a U.S. congressman that the case be overturned.
“I believe we should end abortion on demand, and at every opportunity I have translated this believe into votes in the House of Representatives. I am opposed to the use of federal funds to pay for elective abortions, and will continue to support amendments to prohibit the funding of elective abortions for federal employees and Medicaid recipients,” Durbin wrote as a U.S. congressman in 1989. “Also, notwithstanding the result in Webster, I continue to believe the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade should be reversed.”
Now that the Supreme Court has done what he once advocated for, Durbin has taken the opposite approach.
“Today’s decision eliminates a federally protected constitutional right that has been the law for nearly half a century. As a result, millions of Americans are waking up in a country where they have fewer rights than their parents and grandparents,” Durbin released in a statement — unironically about children growing up — in response to the Dobbs decision. “I will keep fighting to enshrine into law a woman’s right to make her own reproductive choices. We cannot let our children inherit a nation that is less free and more dangerous than the one their parents grew up in.”
Candidates running for office as Democrats never offer any form of restriction on abortion, even when pressed in media interviews. Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is the latest example.
“I think the challenge that we have is that we keep putting this in a political space. This is a medical decision. And the medical choices that should be made should be governed by what is best for that woman. And what is the best suggestion of an advice of their doctor,” Abrams said during a recent interview on “Fox News Sunday” after being asked if she supports abortion up to nine months of pregnancy.
But while Democrats have gone from moderate to the far left on the issue of abortion, Americans today are far closer to the Democrats of two decades ago.
According to new Harvard-Harris polling taken after the final Dobbs decision in June, the vast majority of Americans — a whopping 72 percent — are in favor of 15-week abortion bans in states across the country. Busting another narrative, women favor this restriction more than men. Only 10 percent of respondents agreed with the current and mainstream Democratic position of no restrictions, including up until the birth of the child.
And yet, the Biden administration continues to push an extremist, out-of-touch view on the issue — and is using taxpayer funds to do it.
“The Office of Personnel Management issued guidance affirming that paid sick leave can be taken to cover absences for travel to obtain reproductive health care,” the White House released last week. “Health and Human Services will take additional action to protect and expand access to abortion care, including access to medication that the FDA approved as safe and effective over twenty years ago. These actions will build on the steps the Secretary of HHS has already taken at the President’s direction following the decision to ensure that medication abortion is as widely accessible as possible.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, who has no experience in the health care field, is walking right up to the line of legality on the issue.
Outside of the Supreme Court and the homes of justices, you’ll find the tiny minority of activists Biden is trying to satisfy. They loudly demand abortion be provided with no restrictions and classified as “health care.” The rest of country finds unlimited abortion grotesque and widely supports bans on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Pavlich is the editor for Townhall.com and a Fox News contributor.