Race for the White House has major abortion implications: Where the candidates stand

By: Oliver Goldman

(Tom Williams/Zuma)

Following perhaps the most acute attack on abortion and the Roe v. Wade decision since the decision was made in 1973, tempers have flared nationwide over the partisan and divisive issue. Alabama’s new abortion ban prohibits abortion once a fetal heartbeat can be detected and makes the punishment for administering an illegal abortion harsher. The new ban also directly challenges the ruling in Roe, which protects a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy before viability.

The Alabama decision sparked similarly strict laws to be passed in Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio, all of which are in violation of a woman’s rights protected by the Roe decision.

The next administration will be able to steer the wheel on the direction of abortion policy. Abortion is at the top of voters’ minds and hearts this election cycle. A potential Supreme Court challenge to Roe is most likely coming in the near future. Women’s rights and state’s rights activists alike are sure to have this issue at the top of their voting agenda come Election Day on June 11th.

The Democratic nominee for the presidency, Senator Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts, made no surprise when she professed her stance on abortion. “I believe that every woman should have the right to choose whether or not she wants to terminate a pregnancy and I think that the government needs to take a responsibility in protecting that right, and making sure that access to an abortion is always safe, easy, and legal,” she said.

She didn’t elaborate on how government would protect women’s rights besides saying that the safety, availability, and legality of the practice must be protected.

The Tim Scott campaign was blunt in their response. “We really believe that abortion should be something that’s left up to the states...it’s state’s rights first,” a spokesman for the campaign said. As compared to the Warren campaign, the Scott campaign is running on the grounds that states must retain authority over the issue and must have their rights protected ahead of women’s rights.

Lindsey Graham, the 63-year-old senior Senator from South Carolina, announced his bid for president as a member of the Independent Party on Tuesday. He had this to say about abortion: “I do not believe a woman should have the right to have an abortion. There are a couple of reasonable exceptions, but I will not get into those right now. All in all, women should not have the right to have an abortion.”

Graham’s stance is even further right than the Scott campaign’s. He acknowledged that there should be a few reasonable exceptions, but he expressed his belief that it wasn’t even a matter of state rights, but more so a matter of outright ensuring that abortions are no longer available to most women.

Abortion is an issue that urgently needs action. Voters are divided on the issue, and so are the candidates. Whichever party wins the White House will have the upperhand in determining the new standard for abortion rights.