Liberals have been foaming in the mouth ever since the US Supreme Court voted to overturn the 1973 decision of Roe v. Wade which wrongly established the constitutionality of a woman’s right to have an abortion. Many activists and politicians from the Left blasted the SCOTUS’ decision as taking the country back to the dark ages.
In the words of President Joe Biden, who, ironically, is a devout Roman Catholic, the SCOTUS’ decision to overturn Roe literally took “America back 150 years.” What is more striking about Biden is that his Senate track record showed him to be firmly against abortion in the past. In 1977, Biden voted against a compromise that allowed Medicaid to fund abortions for victims of rape and incest in addition to circumstances where the mother’s life is at risk.
While the law passed without Biden’s support, he voted again in 1981 to remove the rape and incest exceptions in the bill.
There are many other instances where Biden voted to block federal employees from using health insurance on abortion services. The president has also expressed strong opposition of abortion several times in the past.
So what has changed for the devout Catholic between 1981 and now? It can only be that the president’s seismic change on abortion is because it has since become attractive to the Left and an avenue for Liberals to do what they do best – virtual signaling!
Biden, while reacting to the overturning of Roe, said voters must elect representatives who will “restore the protections of Roe as law of the land.” “This fall, Roe is on the ballot. Personal freedoms are on the ballot. The right to privacy, liberty, equality, they’re all on the ballot,” he said.
Kamala Harris, Biden’s vice, seconded the president’s suggestion that the American people can make the final decision on abortion in the next election.
“You have the power to elect leaders who will defend and protect your rights. And as the president said earlier today, with your vote, you can act,” Harris added.
While Biden and Harris’s suggestions are not far from the truth, the Democrats have not made abortion a focal point of their messaging as the 2022 midterms approach.
Heading into the 2018 midterm elections, former president Donald Trump and other GOP members recognized that the open Southern Border and the inflow of illegal immigrants were major concerns for the nation. Trump knew that the only way he would get his way in his plan to build the border wall would be to have a supermajority in congress, as the Democrats would not support his bid. Consequently, Trump and his conservative allies made immigration issues a focal point of their message to voters, even going as far as taking out Super Bowl ads to that effect.
So why are the Democrats not copying from Trump’s playbook in regards to their abortion messaging heading into the November midterms? It can only be that abortion is not that much of a serious issue for them.
In the 50 years that Roe existed, Congressional Democrats never made a move to codify the precedent into federal law even when they unified Democratic governments under the Clinton presidency in 1993 and 1994 and the second under the Obama presidency in 2009 and 2010. Congressional Democrats have come under heavy criticism for that.
“When you look back, did Democrats fail, past Democratic presidents, congressional leaders, to not codify Roe v. Wade over the past five decades? I think that, to be very honest with you, I do believe that we should have rightly believed, but we certainly believed that certain issues are just settled,” Harris told Robert Costa, chief election and campaign correspondent at CBS News when he asked her why Congressional Democrats did not codify Roe. “Certain issues are just settled,” she said in the interview.
Kamala went as far as saying Democrats took Roe v Wade “for granted.” Why the Left would take what they believe as “women’s right” for granted beggars belief.
The GOP never hid its intentions to overturn the Roe precedent. In fact, Trump, in his manifesto heading into the 2016 election, promised to nominate Supreme Justices that would do just that. Why then would Harris and fellow Leftists see Roe as a settled precedent?
Immediately after Roe V. Wade was overturned, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D- NY) sent out a statement via Twitter saying, “People will die because of this decision.”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi also issued a statement describing the ruling as “outrageous and heart-wrenching.” Even more noteworthy is Pelosi’s addition that the decision meant the GOP had achieved its aim of overturning Roe.
If anything, Ocasio-Cortez and Pelosi’s statements highlighted the “supposed” importance of Roe and the Left’s awareness of the GOP’S intentions of overturning it. Again, why didn’t Congressional Democrats move to codify it when they had the chance? Why was Joe Biden voting against bills that would have allowed Medicaid to fund abortion even when the mother’s life was at risk?
Not doing anything to codify Roe v. Wade, even as Conservatives threatened to overturn the precedent, only points to the fact that the Left were not really taking abortion laws seriously and have only been hiding behind the ruling all through its nearly 50 years of existence.
Speaking of rights, Liberals have argued that women should be able to do what they want with their bodies. Abortions activists on the Left call themselves “pro choice” and use terms like “my body, my choice.” Senator Bernie Sanders wrote on Twitter that “overturning Roe v. Wade and denying women the right to control their body is an outrage.” Stacey Abrams, who ran and lost in her bid to become Georgia governor, said she was appalled at the decision to overturn Roe, which in her words, safeguarded the right to choose for millions.
What is worth noting in Sanders and Abram’s reaction to the ruling is that they both erroneously categorized overturning Roe v. Wade as taking away a woman’s right to choose. This argument from the Left would have carried more substance if they hadn’t supported Biden’s executive order that mandated the COVID-19 vaccines, leading many vaccine skeptics to lose their means of livelihood. In this case, women who were vaccine skeptics suddenly lost their right to do with their bodies what they pleased. So is the Left’s hypocrisy.