The Republican Party’s women problem could be worse due to abortion policies
Do We Really Want to See Mifepristone? The Case for Abortion in the Light of the Supreme Court Overturned Roe v. Wade
According to a poll, the lower court decision to void FDA approval of Mifepristone is out of step with public opinion. By a 64%-to-35% margin, respondents in the survey of 1,291 adults said they oppose laws banning access to medication abortion. The survey was conducted from April 17 to 19 before the Supreme Court made their decision. 3.4 percentage point margin of error.
The finding come as the Supreme Court left in place — for now — access to the drug mifepristone, which is used in early stage abortions. It’s not likely that the drug will be the final word, as challenges relating to it are expected to come before the high court early next year in the middle of a presidential election.
Emboldened by the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, Republican lawmakers in the state took it a step further when they enacted a near total ban on the procedure that only includes very narrow exceptions to save the life of the pregnant person.
The divide between Republican men and women, however, shouldn’t be interpreted as GOP women being more supportive of abortion rights. Republican women less opposed to law banning medication abortion, for example, than Republican men.
Nancy Mace said on CNN that we’re getting it wrong on the issue. “We’ve got to show some compassion to women, especially women who’ve been raped. We’ve got to show compassion on the abortion issue because, by and large, the — most of Americans aren’t with us on this issue.”
How much do you think about the U.S. Supreme Court? Evidence from a survey of judges in the four-term Pew Research Consortium
More than half of people said they did not think judges should be able to overturn FDA approvals.
Six in 10 respondents said they have not very much or no confidence in the Supreme Court, continuing a trend of declining trust in the once-vaunted institution.
When asked if they have a good amount of confidence in the court, only 39% responded affirmatively. It’s the lowest level of confidence in the poll in five years.
There is a clear divide by party, however. A majority of Republicans (53%) do have confidence in the court, but only 39% of independents and 24% of Democrats do.
Conservative victories at the court in recent years make sense. Former President Trump was able to reshape the court by appointing three justices — after Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell blocked former President Obama from replacing the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
But that’s mostly because of the opposition from Republican women. A slim majority (53%) of GOP men support the lifetime appointments, but only 28% of GOP women do.
The Suburban Women Problem: Why abortion is a political issue for many women in the United States and why the GOP does not want to tackle it
Tiffany Sheffield lives in Round Rock, Texas, a suburb north of the capital, Austin. For the most part, she describes herself as a conservative Christian. Abortion is not just a political issue for her, it’s also a moral issue. She says it’s not something she’d ever consider for herself. But, Sheffield also has a problem with the government interfering in these kinds of decisions.
“That is completely up to her and there is no judgment and there is no right for me to tell her otherwise,” she said. Sometimes the government steps in too much and we end up with a lot of other social issues.
Suburban women voters have become an increasingly important bloc for both political parties. Voter behavior can be hard to predict because of the recent political changes across the country. Abortion policies being pushed by Republicans across the country, however, could be tipping many women in these areas squarely out of favor with Republicans.
In Texas, there is no place like it for abortion restrictions. The state has had some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country for years now. It passed a six-week abortion ban in 2021 and its novel enforcement strategy stood the scrutiny of the Supreme Court and it was upheld and has been in effect since then.
Rachel Vindman co-hosts a podcast called The Suburban Women Problem, which she says is a reference to something South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham told Fox News ahead of the 2018 midterms.
“We’ve got to address the suburban women problem, because it’s real,” Graham said, after the network projected Republicans would lose control of the House of Representatives.
But Vindman says that’s changed. The party’s recent support for cutting off access to one of the two pills used in a medication abortion is just the latest example.
“It falls into this extremism as a whole,” she said. I was a republican for a long time. And what used to be part of the Republican Party for a long time. The conservatism used to be about individual responsibility and smaller government.
Rebecca Deen, a political science professor at UT Arlington, says these more extreme policies have also made the issue of abortion more salient. Voters hear about it more and think about it more frequently.
In a weird feedback loop, politicians get in the news, but voters don’t know what to think about it, because it is just more discussed.
