Why don’t they try something else? A theme that runs through Cohen’s piece is a substantial degree of denial: Democrats and abortion-rights advocates are still living in a world where their objective is to “defend Roe” and therefore any policy that is less expansive than what had been covered by Roe is a “setback” for abortion rights. But there is no Roe to defend anymore, so this perspective makes no sense. And yet, it is the institutional position of the putatively pro-abortion-rights apparatus attached to the party.
What Democrats need to do now is promote and enact what protections they can at the federal level, and even more crucially, fight state-by-state to protect abortion rights. Democrats will often be on favorable ground in those fights, since the public is more pro-choice than pro-life, on balance. But to fight that fight, you have to admit that there is no longer a federal right to abortion in the first two trimesters — and that therefore, legislation falling short of that standard is an advance for abortion rights, not a concession. Too many Democrats haven’t gotten past the denial stage of grief. But some of their constituents have, and Democrats need to follow them, moving past grief to anger and bargaining. Specifically bargaining. Remember: this is about setting a federal floor, not a ceiling, for abortion access.
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