Abortion recedes from spotlight in Texas
AUSTIN, TEXAS » As the right to an abortion in the U.S. hangs in doubt, one thing seemed clear at the outset of 2022: The issue would tower over America’s midterm elections.
But in Texas — of all places — that hasn’t been the case going into the nation’s first primary.
Airwaves are not swamped with campaign ads focused on abortion access. Candidates spend more time talking about COVID-19, immigration and the reliability of the power grid. Some rallies and events come and go without even a mention of Texas having the most restrictive abortion law in the country on the books for months now.
“It’s almost like we’ve become numb,” said Democrat Ann Johnson, a state representative in Houston.
With early voting underway for the March 1 primary, the absence of abortion at the forefront of Texas races amounts to an abrupt swing from last fall, when the law banning abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy took effect and made headlines across the country. Republican lawmakers in other states rushed to propose copycat measures, and in the White House, President Joe Biden slammed the law as unleashing “constitutional chaos.”
The change has disappointed abortion-rights supporters who suspect that months of court defeats have taken a toll on their side at a time when a full press is still needed. Others worry that some candidates, particularly Democrats, still don’t know how to campaign effectively on abortion even after the tumult of last fall.
“It’s a community issue. It’s a public health issue, and I think to not talk about it is like super blind,” said Amy Hagstrom Miller, president of Whole Woman’s Health, which operates four clinics in Texas.
It shows that Democratic and Republican candidates in Texas have concluded other issues are higher priorities for voters in the primary — the economy, schools and health care among them.
Many believe the abortion issue will return to the spotlight in the general election campaign, when candidates are facing the opposing party rather than like-minded competitors from their own, and after the Supreme Court decides whether to weaken the landmark Roe vs. Wade ruling that guarantees the right to an abortion. The court’s decision on a key abortion case is expected by June.
But as the 2022 campaign begins, the Texas race has revealed cracks between the practical impact of the Texas law on abortion rights and the politics of the issue. Recent data confirmed that in the first month after the restrictions took effect, abortions in Texas fell by 60%.
Outside San Antonio this month, a forum of candidates for a seat in the Texas House — where the law known as Senate Bill 8 overwhelmingly passed a year ago — drew a crowd of more than 100 people in mostly rural Kendall County.
None of the candidates on stage talked about it, and no one in the audience asked.
“There was 45 minutes there that it could have come up, and it didn’t,” said Laura Bray, who leads the local Democratic Party.
In her county, where President Donald Trump won 3-to-1 in 2020, Bray said Democrats avoid discussing abortion so they don’t turn off Republican voters they’re trying to win over.
What campaigns in Texas have been emphasizing most aligns with national surveys: Although Democratic voters increasingly support protecting reproductive rights, a range of issues from the economy to gun control still rank higher, according to a December poll from The Associated PRESS-NORC.