It's an uphill battle for Democrats. They should have been strategizing for 2020, but alas...hopefully they make the best of these next 8 years.
Republican strategists, however, had an eye on the states in the 2010 midterms. In The Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove, the architect of George W. Bush’s victories, wrote that a group called the Republican State Leadership Committee was aiming to flip 18 legislative chambers where Democrats were holding the majority by four or fewer seats. Because it was a census year, taking control of state legislatures would give Republicans power over redistricting.
The group spent just $30 million — less than the cost of some Senate races. Republicans won 680 seats, more than the Democrats had won in the post-Watergate election of 1974.
In another year, the swing in party control might not have given much hope to anti-abortion forces. They had failed to pass a constitutional amendment banning abortion even with Republicans controlling Congress and the White House in the 1980s, and failed to get a favorable Casey decision even with Republican appointees dominating the court. A decade later, the party had set up a “big tent” to include abortion rights supporters, with Roger Stone, the future Trump operative, advising Republicans for Choice, a group led by his wife.
The Republicans of 2010 had been backed by the Tea Party, which had swelled in protest over Obamacare in the summer of 2009. Polls found that about 60 percent of Tea Party supporters thought that abortion should be illegal, and about half identified as part of the Religious Right, a coalition that had belatedly come together after Roe, in 1980, to oppose abortion.
Over the next year, Republican-led chambers passed more restrictions on abortion than in any year since the Roe decision in 1973.
Many of the earliest bills reflected the bitterness of the Obamacare debate. They prohibited insurance coverage of abortion and eliminated public funding for Planned Parenthood.
Others added delays for women seeking abortions: ultrasounds, counseling from anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers and waiting periods. South Dakota’s 24-hour waiting period became 72 hours. Six states mandated that parental notification for abortions be notarized. North Carolina required women to receive counseling that abortion could damage their ability to get pregnant and cause lasting mental health consequences — claims unsupported by medical studies.
Many of the bills copied model legislation from anti-abortion groups such as Americans United for Life or the National Right to Life Committee that had stalled in committee in previous years. Now they were gliding through two Republican-controlled chambers to the governor’s pen. “It wasn’t that they were coming up with new ideas,” said Donna Crane, then the policy director at NARAL. “It’s just that the goalie got pulled.”
How Did Roe Fall? Before a Decisive Ruling, a Powerful Red Wave.
The downfall of the constitutional right to abortion began 12 years ago, after Republicans swept state house elections and passed hundreds of restrictions.
www.nytimes.com
Republican strategists, however, had an eye on the states in the 2010 midterms. In The Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove, the architect of George W. Bush’s victories, wrote that a group called the Republican State Leadership Committee was aiming to flip 18 legislative chambers where Democrats were holding the majority by four or fewer seats. Because it was a census year, taking control of state legislatures would give Republicans power over redistricting.
The group spent just $30 million — less than the cost of some Senate races. Republicans won 680 seats, more than the Democrats had won in the post-Watergate election of 1974.
In another year, the swing in party control might not have given much hope to anti-abortion forces. They had failed to pass a constitutional amendment banning abortion even with Republicans controlling Congress and the White House in the 1980s, and failed to get a favorable Casey decision even with Republican appointees dominating the court. A decade later, the party had set up a “big tent” to include abortion rights supporters, with Roger Stone, the future Trump operative, advising Republicans for Choice, a group led by his wife.
The Republicans of 2010 had been backed by the Tea Party, which had swelled in protest over Obamacare in the summer of 2009. Polls found that about 60 percent of Tea Party supporters thought that abortion should be illegal, and about half identified as part of the Religious Right, a coalition that had belatedly come together after Roe, in 1980, to oppose abortion.
Over the next year, Republican-led chambers passed more restrictions on abortion than in any year since the Roe decision in 1973.
Many of the earliest bills reflected the bitterness of the Obamacare debate. They prohibited insurance coverage of abortion and eliminated public funding for Planned Parenthood.
Others added delays for women seeking abortions: ultrasounds, counseling from anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers and waiting periods. South Dakota’s 24-hour waiting period became 72 hours. Six states mandated that parental notification for abortions be notarized. North Carolina required women to receive counseling that abortion could damage their ability to get pregnant and cause lasting mental health consequences — claims unsupported by medical studies.
Many of the bills copied model legislation from anti-abortion groups such as Americans United for Life or the National Right to Life Committee that had stalled in committee in previous years. Now they were gliding through two Republican-controlled chambers to the governor’s pen. “It wasn’t that they were coming up with new ideas,” said Donna Crane, then the policy director at NARAL. “It’s just that the goalie got pulled.”
