President Joe Biden on Wednesday celebrated one other spherical of election outcomes displaying that American voters, together with these in purple states, broadly assist reproductive rights and wish abortion to stay authorized.
Biden touted the leads to Ohio, the place voters accredited a state constitutional modification that ensures entry to abortion and different types of reproductive well being care, the seventh state the place voters have completed so for the reason that US Supreme Court docket overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.
“Ohioans and voters throughout the nation rejected makes an attempt by MAGA Republican elected officers to impose excessive abortion bans that put the well being and lives of ladies in jeopardy, drive ladies to journey tons of of miles for care, and threaten to criminalize docs and nurses for offering the well being care that their sufferers want and that they’re educated to supply,” Biden stated in an announcement.
Whereas Ohio received the majority of the eye and was dwelling to the one abortion-related poll measure, Democrats additionally received key races in different states by working on abortion rights.
In Kentucky, staunchly pro-choice Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear received reelection to a second time period Tuesday, defeating anti-abortion Republican Daniel Cameron, who supported a statewide abortion ban.
In Virginia, Democrats beat again Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s try to show the state totally Republican by defending their majority within the state Senate and flipping management of the Home of Delegates. Virginia Democrats largely ran on preserving abortion entry within the commonwealth, whereas Youngkin pledged to go a 15-week abortion ban if Republicans received management of each chambers of the legislature.
And in Pennsylvania, a pro-choice Democratic choose received a vacant seat on the state Supreme Court docket, defeating an anti-abortion Republican choose.
These victories are simply the newest in an extended string of state-level wins for the reproductive rights motion since Roe was overturned. Voters in states equivalent to California, Vermont, and Michigan have accredited poll measures to guard abortion rights, whereas voters in purple states like Kansas and Montana rejected poll measures that will have successfully banned abortion.
Professional-choice governors in states like Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin additionally received their races final yr, defeating anti-abortion Republicans.
In Virginia, abortion is at the moment authorized till fetal viability, which is often round 23-24 weeks, and can keep that method following Democrats’ wins on Tuesday.
Tuesday’s wins point out that reproductive rights stay a potent concern for voters heading into the 2024 presidential election, one thing that President Joe Biden lauded in his assertion issued Tuesday.
“Individuals as soon as once more voted to guard their basic freedoms – and democracy received,” the president stated. “This excessive and harmful agenda is out-of-step with the overwhelming majority of Individuals.”
Biden additionally reiterated his assist for abortion rights and known as on Congress “to revive the protections of Roe v. Wade in federal regulation as soon as and for all.”
The Biden administration has taken a number of steps up to now yr to guard entry to reproductive well being care, together with abortion.
Shortly after the Supreme Court docket struck down Roe, Biden signed an govt order defending entry to reproductive well being care providers. The order helps ladies journey out of state to obtain abortion care, ensures well being care suppliers adjust to federal regulation so that ladies aren’t delayed in getting that care, and superior analysis and knowledge assortment “to judge the impression that this reproductive well being disaster is having on maternal well being and different well being situations and outcomes.”
Earlier this yr, Biden additionally issued new guidelines permitting retail pharmacies to dispense mifepristone. Mifepristone, together with one other drug, misoprostol, is accredited by way of 10 weeks of being pregnant, and is utilized in greater than half of abortions nationwide. Final month, Politico reported that greater than a dozen retail pharmacies throughout the nation began shelling out the drug.
The Pentagon has additionally instituted a brand new coverage that reimburses service members for journey bills and affords as much as 21 days of go away for abortions and fertility therapy.
