Americans want abortion restrictions, but not in red states
“Abortion is a political and moral issue”: A conservative Christian woman in Round Rock, Texas, who can make the Republican party’s suburban women problem worse
Round Rock, Texas, is a suburb north of the capital, Austin. She describes herself as – for the most part — 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.
“There is no right or wrong for me to tell her otherwise and she has the right to do that,” she said. Sometimes the government can get a little too much and I think that we end up having a lot of other social issues.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/04/25/1171728903/abortion-policies-could-make-the-republican-partys-suburban-women-problem-worse
The Suburban Women’s Problem: Why Do We Care About Abortion? How Does the GOP End its Role in Structural Change?
Before the Supreme Court decision, suburban women were not as focused on abortion as they are now. These voters didn’t consider it a priority because this was mostly settled policy. That isn’t true anymore.
Texas is ground zero for abortion restrictions. The state has had some of the strictest abortion laws in the country. 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 have got to address the suburban women, because it’s real,” Graham said, after the network projected Republicans would lose control of the House of Representatives.
Vindman thinks 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.
She said that it falls into this type of extremism. I’ve been a Republican for a long time. And what used to be part of the Republican Party for a long time. And what used to be part of the conservative movement was this 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 are thinking about it more often when they hear about it.
“There is this weird feedback loop of: politicians do things, they get in the news, and so the thing that they might want to be settled is just more talked about and so it is top of mind for voters and then becomes more problematic for them,” Deen explained.
Probing Abortion Rights in the 21st Century: An Analysis of the Marist Survey Across Various Distinction Between Republicans and Democrats
In this survey, 61% said they mostly support abortion rights, 37% count themselves as opposed. That support is at or near record highs in the Marist survey and other surveys taken over the last 20 years or so.
Although most of the respondents support restrictions, they are opposed to many of the measures Republicans are pushing in red states.
The Republicans have had a hard time finding a post-Roe balance due to 50 years of lobbying for the ruling to be overturned. They got their wish, but have suffered politically since.
Almost 9 in 10 Republicans and three-quarters of independents want to see abortion restricted to three months or less. A majority of Democrats want to see it limited, but 42% of them want a longer window.
On yet another issue, Republicans in red states are overplaying their hand politically, pushing policies that are out of step with the majority of Americans.
Conservatives who oppose safe havens risk losing voters in a general election, because they have to appeal to the GOP base.
