According to a new Zogby poll, "Americans are pro-life across the board on numerous abortion-related issues... Americans support every pro-life law considered on the state and national level and believe life begins at conception."
It's clear that though a consistent majority of Americans do not favor the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade as many conservatives do, many or most take a "pro-life" stance on many or most abortion-related issues.
In this highly charged atmosphere over abortion, with South Dakota banning most abortions and the confirmation battles of two new Supreme Court justicies, the poll found that pro-abortion Democrats who want to use the abortion issue to gain votes will have a hard time.
Pollster John Zogby noted that "Democrats will have trouble gaining a political advantage by using the emotionally charged issue of abortion."
Indeed, and while the Democrats should - and rightfully - remain the pro-choice party, it is becoming clear that Democrats will have to find a way to retake the issue or it will continue to be a liability in much of the country.
Luckily, according to The Hill, Democrats in the Senate are backing what they hope to be a way to do just that.
The Senate Democratic leadership says it has found a wedge issue to strengthen the party’s position on abortion rights... legislation expanding access to contraceptives and sex education, which polls show a majority of Americans support but which Democrats are betting will be difficult for social conservatives in the Republican base to accept.
The bill is called the Prevention First Act and has over 20 Democratic co-sponsors. The article says polls show an overwhelming majority support such a plan, even many pro-lifers. But this would force conservative Republicans to have to go on record about it, which could hurt them with moderates or their conservative base depending how they vote.
The bill would prohibit group health plans from excluding contraceptive drugs, devices and outpatient services if they cover the cost of other prescription drugs and outpatient services. It would also require the secretary of health and human services to disseminate information on emergency contraception to healthcare providers and require hospitals receiving federal money to provide emergency contraception to victims of sexual assault.
The bill would also mandate that federally funded programs provide information about contraceptives that is medically accurate and includes data on health benefits and failure rates.
This sounds like a good start at least. William Saletan makes a good case for such a stategy in his article "Life After Roe." Hillary Clinton and our U.S. Senate candidate here in Texas, Barbara Radnofsky, call it "target-zero" abortion, taking Bill Clinton's "safe, legal, and rare" meme to an even more mass-appealing level.
Unfortunately, many activists on the left reject the strategy as I witnessed at UNT when Sarah Weddington (the lawyer who succesfully argued Roe) came to speak and several of those who asked questions took the oppurtunity to attack the Democrats' perceived acquiescence on the issue. I understand and sympathize with their frustration, but it's not productive. And it won't help them get what they want, which is continued legal access to abortion.
As I said, Democrats must remain the party that stands for the right to choose. However, we must also be the party that has its own strategy for making abortion less common, or rather, for making it as least common as possible. I think we can all agree, no matter what side of the debate we are on, that is a worthy goal.
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
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3 comments:
I agree with you 100% on this issue. The truth of the matter is that many people who still support a woman's right to choose are uncomfortable with abortion. Though they may not equate it with the taking of a human life, it is still a tragedy in some sense when a life does not come into the world that could have, and it does have moral implications. Democrats should represent this view along with the view of those who are less concerned with abortion's implications because a) it's more inclusive so it's the right thing to do and b) this is how many Americans feel.
I agree that this is an issue where what feels like the right thing to do is also the right thing to do politically. The Republicans can stay beholden to the anti-abortion movement; they really have no choice. But Democrats can focus on safer sex and sex education, which we should be doing anyway, and that has the benefit of both reducing abortions and pulling away from the GOP those who don't have a hardline anti-abortion stance.
Anyway...sorry to basically rephrase what you wrote, but I do agree with you on this issue, and I'm glad that many Democrats are starting to feel the same way.
Well I've long been frustrated that we're not doing more to make sure that kids aren't passing around diseases and getting pregnant. Unfortunately you have the Bible Belt idiots who think that just by talking about sex you're encouraging kids to have it. I tell you one thing though, teaching abstinence does not work and we know this. The Dems should have already been all over this issue, but better late than never. That does not mean that anyone should back off the pro-choice stance though.
I agree. But like Adam I think this allows Democrats to sort of sideline it, to make the debate about something else. And after all, you want your party to be seen as the "reasonable" party, not the party that wants kids getting knocked up and being forced to have kids because they won't provide sex education OR abortions.
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