ICYMI: Senate debates zero in on abortion [Axios]

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Axios: Senate debates zero in on abortion
By Oriana Gonzalez
October 21, 2022

Key Points:

• Democrats are intent on making abortion a defining issue of the midterm election cycle and painting Republican opponents of the procedure as extremists.

• State of play: Polls show that since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Americans are more motivated to vote for candidates that support abortion access.

• Driving the news: Abortion looms particularly large in Senate races in battleground states. If Republicans retake control of the chamber, they could bring up a nationwide 15-week ban on the procedure.

• Arizona: Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) slammed Blake Masters (R) for referring to abortion as “demonic” and for saying at one point that he would support a federal personhood law, which would classify fetuses and embryos as people. Masters said he would support a 15-week ban.

• Florida: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) [is] the only senator up for reelection to co-sponsor Sen. Lindsay Graham’s (R-S.C.) nationwide 15-week ban… Demings suggested that Rubio supports banning abortion without any sort of exceptions.

• Georgia: Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) said that women should be the ones to choose over their own bodies and called the Supreme Court “extremist” for getting rid of Roe. Warnock pointed to his opponent Herschel Walker (R) when asking if Georgians wished to support someone who “wanted to control your life.”

• North Carolina: … [Beasley] added that Budd, who has previously backed a six-week ban, “wants to be in between a woman and her doctor, and there is no place in the exam room for Congressman Budd.”

• Ohio: Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) said that his Republican challenger, JD Vance, “supports a national abortion ban in which he wants women to have to get a passport and go to Canada” to access the procedure.

• Wisconsin: Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes (D) attacked Sen. Ron Johnson (R) for previously saying that if women do not support the state’s pre-Roe ban, they could move to another state: “I can’t think of a more callous, out of touch, or extreme position to take.”

• “Any voter watching these debates can see the clear threat Republicans pose to a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions,” said Eli Cousin, spokesperson for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

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