Both sides on abortion ready to fight in Senate
WASHINGTON — Democrats have a very limited ability to block President Donald Trump’s second nominee for the Supreme Court in the Republican-controlled Senate, yet they do have some chance — and they have begun mobilizing for it.
Whether Trump’s nominee wins will likely turn on one of the most divisive issues in American politics — abortion rights.
For decades Republicans succeeded where Democrats have failed, in making court nominations a motivating force at election time — turning out religious conservatives with the promise that Republican candidates would support Supreme Court justices opposed to Roe v. Wade, the decision that guaranteed a nationwide right to abortion. Now, with Trump poised to tip the Supreme Court’s balance decidedly rightward, Democrats’ hope lies in shaking voters’ complacency about the ruling.
Democratic strategists hope that the pressure to oppose Trump’s nominee over that issue will not only keep the Democratic senators facing re-election in proTrump states in the party fold, but also could persuade the two Republican senators who favor abortion rights, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
The Senate majority is narrow — Republicans hold 51 seats, 50 if Sen. John McCain, who is battling brain cancer and has been absent from Washington for months, is not available to vote. That presents the president with a challenge. He must nominate someone from his list of 25 names whose views give anti-abortion voters confidence without being so strident as to alienate the moderates.
“There’s not much that Senate Democrats can do to stop this, even if they hold together,” said James P. Manley, a Democratic strategist and former top aide to Sens. Harry Reid and Edward Kennedy. “It’s all going to come down to what’s left of the moderate Senate Republicans.”
Whether all the Democrats would stick together, however, remains uncertain. Trump’s first nominee, Neil Gorsuch, was confirmed last year by a 54-45 vote. Three Democrats joined all Republicans in support: Sens. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
All three face re-election this year.
Yet the stakes are arguably higher now: Gorsuch replaced a like-minded conservative, Justice Antonin Scalia. The next nominee replaces the court’s longtime swing vote, Justice Anthony Kennedy.
The key senators in the middle largely declined to say much after the news that Kennedy was retiring.
“First of all, I view Roe v. Wade as being settled law. It’s clearly precedent,” Collins told reporters. “I always look for judges who respect precedent.”
Outside groups on both sides were less reticent.
“A woman’s constitutional right to access legal abortion is in dire, immediate danger,” Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said in a statement.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List, said in its response, “The most important commitment that President Trump has made to the pro-life movement has been his promise to nominate only pro-life judges to the Supreme Court.”
Both sides also sought to use the timing of the coming confirmation process to advantage. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, RKy., quickly announced that a confirmation hearing would be this summer and the Senate would vote “in the fall.”
Marc Short, Trump’s director of legislative affairs, said that for conservatives, a pre-election confirmation process will serve as “a stark reminder about why so many people voted for Donald Trump for president,” and why they need to keep Republicans in control of Congress. Liberals won’t be any more motivated, he predicted, than they already are by their animosity toward Trump.