In June 2016, pro-choice activists flooded the streets outside of the Supreme Court to celebrate its near-miss ruling in Whole Woman’s Health vs. Hellerstedt, upholding abortion rights in Texas. But then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton issued a stark warning:
“[T]he fact that our next president could appoint as many as three or four justices in the next four years [should serve as] striking reminders that we can’t take rulings like today’s for granted.”
Anecdotally, former Clinton campaign staffers have told Daily Kos that focus groups of voters simply didn’t believe abortion rights could be at risk.
Eight years and three Trump-appointed justices later, Republicans have quashed abortion access across the South, and they are angling for a nationwide ban, which Donald Trump will not commit to vetoing if he wins the presidency.
But voters’ initial reluctance to believe in the fragility of a constitutional right to abortion, which had existed for nearly half a century, is a golden opportunity for Democrats to shed light on what Republicans could do if given the power to enact their dystopian vision for the U.S.
In a recent “60 Minutes” interview with Norah O’Donnell, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries addressed “how big of an issue” abortion rights will be in November.
Jeffries began by framing abortion as a fight for “freedom,” using the “erosion of reproductive freedoms” to warn voters about the myriad other staples of U.S. democracy that Republicans could come for next.
“If Roe v. Wade can fall, anything can fall. Social Security can fall. Medicare can fall. Voting rights can fall. And God help us all, but democracy itself can fall,” Jeffries said.
That’s a pitch perfect slippery slope argument for an electorate that is already on high alert about the existential threat that Republicans pose to U.S. democracy, freedom, and way of life.
A recent Marist poll for NPR and PBS NewsHour showed that “the rise of fascism and extremism” ranked as Americans’ biggest concern about the country’s future, with 31% of adults choosing it over five other metrics. Among Democrats, 47% said it was their primary concern, as did 32% of independents.
Last month’s Siena poll for The New York Times found that 41% of voters view Trump as a “unique threat to democracy,” including 77% of Democrats, 38% of independents, and 6% of Republicans.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden isn’t viewed as nearly the threat that Trump is, with just 28% of voters saying Biden is a unique threat, including 60% of Republicans, 28% of independents, and 2% of Democrats.
Framing Republican abortion bans as a broader assault on freedom is a no-brainer for Democrats. But using abortion to remind voters that the unthinkable not only can happen, but that it has happened, is crucial to helping voters imagine the unimaginable.
And Trump’s narrow win in 2016 was a direct result of that failure of imagination.
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