If the US Supreme Court proceeds as expected in dismantling Roe v. Wade, the Republican Party is prepared to follow through with a full-fledged nationwide abortion ban.
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Since last week’s document leak confirmed the conservative justices’ collective ploy to take away a woman’s right to choose, Republicans have taken to the media to argue that the high court would never implement an all-out abortion ban. Instead, they claim it would merely return the decision to the states for them to decide. According to conservatives, certain states would ban abortions while others would continue to allow it — meaning Americans would still be able to cross state lines to obtain the banned procedure in a different state.
However, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell poo-pooed that argument by announcing that if the Supreme Court sets up an abortion ban with the death of Roe v. Wade, his Grand Ol’ Party is prepared to knock it down nationwide.
In an interview with USA Today, Sen. McConnell let it be known that if the judicial branch of government adopts an abortion ban, the legislative branch will finish the job on its end.
“If the leaked opinion became the final opinion, legislative bodies — not only at the state level but at the federal level — certainly could legislate in that area,” McConnell said of the Republican plan regarding a national abortion ban.
“So yeah, it’s possible,” he added.
McConnell’s words renewed the belief that the alleged neutral and non-political perspective of the US Supreme Court is nonexistent — and that the conservative members of the court are working in conjunction with the Republican Party to control morality as they see fit. His words also prompted an immediate and expected pushback from Democrats.
“We need to make sure that every single voter understands that the Republican Party and Mitch McConnell does not believe that their daughters, that their mothers, that their sisters have rights to make fundamental life and death decisions,” said Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York. “We are half-citizens under this ruling. And if this is put into law, it changes the foundation of America.”
Interestingly, at least one prominent Republican took issue with McConnell’s view, saying a national abortion ban would be “inconsistent” with what the GOP has been fighting for.
“I think it’s inconsistent with what we’ve been fighting for for decades, which is that we wanted [the] Roe v. Wade reversed and the authority to return to the states,” Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“If you look at a constitutional or a national standard, that goes against that thrust of the states having prerogative, and, secondly, I think there’s some constitutional issues with a national standard as well as to one is the authority of the Constitution to enact that.”
As some Republicans call for a national abortion ban, GOP Gov. Asa Hutchinson tells @MarthaRaddatz that would be “inconsistent with that we’ve been fighting for for decades.”
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) May 8, 2022
“We wanted Roe v. Wade reversed and the authority to return to the states.” https://t.co/buFvQOopGw pic.twitter.com/FhprTLdOFy
Gov. Hutchinson, who is also chair of the National Governors Association, added that any potential abortion ban should be controlled by the states and NOT some federal body like the US Senate, as Sen. McConnell has suggested.
“If the court reverses Roe v. Wade, they’re saying that the Constitution does not provide that, which returns it to the states,” he said. “And that’s where the vigorous debate is going to be. That is where we’re going to face a lot of concerns on the compassion side.”
In March 2021, Hutchinson signed a bill that prohibits abortion except to save the life of the mother. Although rape and incest are not considered exceptions under the law, Hutchinson is on record as saying he does not completely agree with such a caveat.
Will some Republicans join Democrats in fighting against a plot by the US Supreme Court and the GOP to implement a nationwide abortion ban?
Stay tuned…
OK WASSUP! discusses the Top News Today:
Republicans plan a nationwide abortion ban.
New Republic: Moscow Mitch just handed Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi the biggest gift they could imagine. Will they open it and seize on it? In an interview with USA Today late last week, McConnell acknowledged that a federal abortion ban was “possible.” He said: “If the leaked opinion became the final opinion, legislative bodies—not only at the state level but at the federal level—certainly could legislate in that area.” What does that mean? It means that Republicans are contemplating a federal law to make abortion illegal—everywhere. That is to say: Even in the two dozen or so states that will pass laws, if Roe is overturned, to keep abortion safe and legal in at least some circumstances, the superseding federal ban would make abortion against the law. Would such a federal law contain any exceptions, for rape and incest and the life of the mother? These were once the… Read more »