After a disappointing round of 2023 off-year elections, Republicans in Democratic districts are begging their far-right colleagues to shut up about fringe abortion laws, the New York Times reported Friday.
The 2023 elections resulted Tuesday revealed to 18 Republicans, who claimed blue districts in 2022, that voters aren't happy about the Supreme Court ruling that eliminated abortion rights.
States across the country have passed or blocked measures that protected the rights of political leaders and left decisions up to the patients and doctors.
Abortion posed a new problem as Republicans battled another budget bill with far-right Republican Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) at the helm and the inclusion of a controversial amendment that would strike down laws that make it illegal to fire someone for using birth control or other family planning-related treatments.
It played right to Democratic complaints that Republicans are pressing abortion laws far outside of the mainstream, and Johnson was forced to kill the funding bill entirely.
“The American people are speaking very clearly: There is no appetite for national abortion law,” said Rep. John Duarte (R-CA), who serves a district Biden won in 2020. “And there’s enough of us in the Republican Party that are going to stand against it.”
Duarte told the Times that center-leaning Republicans want abortion addressed in own stand-alone legislation, not at the core of a budget bill.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) told reporters he agrees and doesn't want abortion anywhere near the funding bills.
"The rare pushback from members who represent the political middle of the Republican conference came two days after Ohio voters resoundingly approved a ballot measure enshrining a right to abortion in the state’s Constitution," said the Times.
Republicans lost big in Tuesday's election, where abortion became an issue. Ohio voted to enshrine abortion rights into the state's Constitution. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) pressed to take back the state Senate so he could pass an abortion ban in the state. Not only did he lose the Senate he sought, but he lost Republican control in the House of Delegates as well. GOP strategist Doug Heye told MSNBC that the far-right Republicans at the local level are hurting the national party.
Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) fought off a Republican challenger, an anti-abortion activist attorney general. Beshear ran an ad with a young woman who talked about being abused by her stepfather and ultimately raped at 12. The ad says she should have the right to an abortion if his molestation resulted in a pregnancy. In February, Kentucky Republicans pressed for a law that would charge women who got abortions with homicide.
The Times goes on to say that due to gerrymandering, far-right extremists have become safe seats in Congress because the lines are drawn to marginalize Democratic voters. So, those members continue to press fringe policies that Americans have voted against or polling shows they oppose.
