As abortion bans grow, so do opportunities for Democrats
For much of her life, Angela Crawford considered herself a fairly conservative Republican — and she voted that way. But then a wave of court rulings and Republican-led actions in states restricted abortion and later in vitro fertilization, the very procedure that had helped her conceive her daughter.
Now, Crawford, 38, is working to gather signatures in her home state of Missouri for a ballot initiative in the fall that would enshrine access to abortion and other reproductive health care. And she's voting for Democrats.
When Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022, Republicans insisted the ruling would mostly affect those seeking abortions to end unwanted pregnancies. But that hasn't been the case.
Women who never intended to end their pregnancies have nearly died because they could not get emergency treatment. Miscarriage care has been delayed. Routine reproductive medical care is drying up in states with strict bans. Fertility treatments were temporarily paused in Alabama. As the fallout grows, so does the opportunity for Democrats.
“I wish everyone would realize how big this topic is,” Crawford said of reproductive rights. “People really minimized it initially, because they didn't realize the scope.”
Democratic candidates are increasingly running on the broader reproductive rights issues and they are seeing results.
For Biden, trying to overcome consistently low approval ratings and Republican Donald Trump's loyal following in order to win reelection in November, the broader matter of reproductive health is becoming an increasingly potent issue as rights diminish in states such as Indiana, Florida and, soon, Arizona.
A Texas woman who went into premature labor, developed sepsis and nearly died because she was unable to get an abortion, and a Louisiana woman who said restrictive laws prevented her from getting miscarriage care are campaigning for Biden in North Carolina. At a Durham community center, blue and red signs with phrases such as “Stop Trump's Abortion Ban” lined the wall.
Doctors attending the event said that helping pregnant patients has become much harder. Tasks they have never had to consider, such as printing out driving instructions to Virginia for patients unable to get an abortion in North Carolina, have become more common.
In Alabama, the pause in IVF services was temporary, but it sent shock waves across the country as other states are weighing laws that could create similar results.