Texas’ Six-Week Abortion Ban “Reshapes” Midterms, Highlighting Republicans’ Toxic Health Care Agenda

A wave of recent reporting highlighted how Texas’ six-week abortion ban is “reshaping the dynamics” of the midterm elections by reminding voters that reproductive rights are on the ballot and “inject[ing] new urgency” into campaigns.

Democrats in key battleground states are calling out Republicans’ toxic agenda on reproductive health care and the GOP’s ongoing efforts to try and strip away health care coverage from women and families––ensuring that this issue will play a critical role in the 2022 Senate elections. 

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Roll Call: Democrats say Texas abortion ban spotlights Senate battle in 2022 

• A new ban on abortions after six weeks in Texas has Democrats sounding the alarm about the importance of upcoming Senate races, given the chamber’s role in confirming federal judges.

• “This attack on women’s health care is a powerful reminder of the stakes in next year’s election — and why we must defend a Democratic Senate majority with the power to confirm or reject Supreme Court justices,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokeswoman Jazmin Vargas said in a statement Wednesday. 

• “The freedom for women to make our own health care decisions is on the ballot in 2022,” Vargas added. The National Republican Senatorial Committee did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

• Democratic Senate candidates were quick to emphasize that the abortion ban demonstrates the need to expand their party’s razor-thin majority.

• Democrats noted Wednesday that the public largely supports abortion rights and that the issue also energizes women voters. 

MSNBC: Texas abortion ban reverberates from White House to state houses 

• The midterm elections are still over a year away, but the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is already emphasizing that reproductive rights will be central to the party’s 2022 messaging.

• Democratic state parties in states like New Hampshire and Florida — both of which will be home to key Senate contests next year — are pushing similar messages.

• All of which is to say, when it comes to abortion, what happens in Texas won’t stay in Texas.

• Postscript: Republican leaders at the state level have been awfully quiet about reproductive rights this week, haven’t they? It’s a reminder that they realize that outside of the GOP’s base, this is not a winning issue for the party.

NBC News: Texas law could flip script on abortion politics, with Democrats eyeing gains

• Democrats in Washington, who face stiff headwinds in defending their majorities in Congress in next year’s elections, see a new opportunity to motivate voters who may have taken abortion rights for granted.

• Democrats’ Senate campaign arm said the Supreme Court’s tacit approval of Texas’ law is “a powerful reminder of the stakes in next year’s election — and why we must defend a Democratic Senate majority with the power to confirm or reject Supreme Court justices.”

• Democrats hear Texas abortion restrictions as a rallying cry for the left. Meanwhile, the GOP’s House and Senate campaign committees didn’t weigh in on the Texas law or the court’s quiet greenlighting of it Wednesday.

New York Times: Abortion Arrives at the Center of the American Political Maelstrom 

• The Supreme Court’s decision not to block a Texas law sharply curtailing abortions abruptly vaulted the issue to the forefront of American politics on Thursday, reshaping the dynamics of elections in California this month, in Virginia in November and in midterms next year that will determine control of Congress and statehouses.

• Yet Democrats also embraced the opportunity to force an issue they believe is a political winner for them to the center of the national debate.

• Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, a Democrat up for re-election in 2022, said people in her state had fought to protect women’s reproductive freedom and would vote accordingly. “If a Republican is going to go to Washington to roll those freedoms back, I will make it an issue,” she said in an interview. “I don’t think you should underestimate the impact that this issue has to Nevadans.”

• Eyeing 2022, the Democrats’ Senate campaign arm has signaled it will use abortion rights as a cudgel against Republicans running in states like Florida, New Hampshire, Nevada and North Carolina. 

Washington Post: ​​Texas abortion law reshapes political landscape

• Democratic women running in Senate elections next year said in interviews that the Supreme Court’s action was a wake-up call that women were already heeding.

• Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), who is facing challenges from several antiabortion Republicans, including former state attorney general Adam Laxalt, was quick to cast next year’s election as a referendum on abortion rights. “It matters who sits in this seat in this race,” she said. “There’s no doubt in my mind, if elected, [my Republican opponents] would support the conservative Supreme Court justices that would further undermine Roe v. Wade, and they would vote for federal legislation to restrict reproductive rights.”

• Laxalt has described himself as an opponent of abortion and, as attorney general, signed briefs supporting restrictive abortion laws in other states. His campaign did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Reuters: Analysis: Texas abortion ban injects new urgency into U.S. election campaigns 

• After the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to block a near-total ban on abortions by Texas, alarmed Democratic candidates and abortion rights advocates had a single, urgent message for voters on Thursday: Abortion rights are on the ballot.

• Democratic strategists say the Supreme Court decision could help their candidates in suburban areas that have trended away from the Republicans in recent years.

Los Angeles Times: How the Supreme Court Texas abortion ruling may impact midterms

• The momentous decision by the Supreme Court to allow a sweeping abortion ban in Texas to take effect has intensified one of the most fraught issues in American politics heading into the 2022 midterm election.

• The shock could help Democrats motivate voters at a time the party is most worried about complacency after taking control of both houses of Congress and the presidency in the 2020 election cycle.

The Hill: Democrats point to Texas abortion ban in bid to juice midterm turnout

• Democrats and abortion activists are gearing up to go on the offensive ahead of the midterms, and they plan to use Texas’s newly enacted all-but-total ban on abortions as Exhibit A in their quest to get voters to the ballot box.

• Democratic Party committees on Wednesday blasted out a number of statements denouncing the move and vowing to galvanize voters to hit back at the ballot box.

• A number of Democratic candidates up and down the ballot also vowed to fight back. 

• But Democrats are using the abortion bans to paint their Republican opponents as extremists in a bid to both rally their base and appeal to moderate voters.

Washington Post: Analysis | The Trailer: Why Democrats want to talk about Texas’s abortion law (and Republicans don’t)

• Since Wednesday morning, when the law went into effect, Democrats have made it a focus of their campaigns — and Republicans haven’t. 

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