In an article published by USA Today, TCA’s Maureen Ferguson reacts to Francesca Chambers article titled “Lindsey Graham’s attempt at a national abortion ban could help GOP in midterms. What we know about the bill.”
Maureen Ferguson, a senior fellow for The Catholic Association, said in a statement that the limits on abortion in Graham’s bill “are humane and common sense.”
“We applaud Sen. Graham’s efforts to seek consensus in a post-Roe world and to protect as many babies and women as possible from the harms of abortion,” she said.
Democrats want to make the midterms about abortion, not inflation, and on cue Tuesday Sen. Lindsey Graham introduced legislation to enact a nationwide ban at 15 weeks of pregnancy. This is constitutionally dubious, and although Mr. Graham is right that Democratic abortion absolutists too often get a pass, he is taking a big political gamble.
…
Mr. Graham’s goal is to draw a line that the GOP can defend to the public. According to the Gallup figures, 67% of Americans want abortion to be “generally legal” in the first 12 weeks. That falls to 36% in the first 24 weeks. But the nuances might be lost on voters, and Democrats are trying to ensure that they are.
…
After Roe v. Wade, conservatives spent five decades arguing that the Supreme Court had inflamed the country by nationalizing the debate on abortion, which is properly a state issue. This summer the Justices reversed that mistake in Dobbs, and the result has been hurly-burly democratic arguments in state legislatures.
There’s no need to re-nationalize the question, and it isn’t clear Congress has the authority to do so. Mr. Graham’s bill cites the Constitution’s Commerce Clause and the Equal Protection Clause as justifications for federal power, but neither is convincing. If Republicans care about originalism, and many of them do, then it’s a mistake to start arguing that abortion regulations qualify as “commerce.”
Fighting for policy change in all 50 states is arduous, with victories offset by defeats and unsatisfying compromises. Democrats and some Republicans don’t want to bother, since it’s easier to pass one bill in Congress, constitutional or not.
