Davis’s activism illuminates a larger shift in the politics of abortion, and it poses risks that Democrats are underestimating. Her filibuster came just days after the U.S. House passed its own bill, on an almost party-line vote, to ban abortion five months after conception, except in cases of rape or when the mother’s life is threatened.
Liberals have been viewing these controversies in light of the 2012 campaign, when two pro-life Republicans sank their U.S. Senate campaigns and put their whole party on defense by saying they opposed abortion even in cases of rape, and saying it in clumsy ways. …
This time, Republicans actually have a response: legislation that highlights how pro-choice Democrats are out of step with the public. Most Americans think abortion should be legal in cases of rape, but they also think it should be illegal in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy. The Gallup Organization has never found more than 27 percent of the public supporting legal second-trimester abortion.
The last time Republicans fought a national election when specific pro-life legislation was at issue was in 2004. Republicans had passed a popular ban on partial-birth abortion. Most Democrats opposed it, but had a hard time justifying their stance. After losing the election, many Democrats — including their presidential candidate, John Kerry — said the perception that they were extreme on abortion had contributed to their defeat.
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