Republican 2024 candidates warned stricter abortion bans could cost them the White House

Ron DeSantis just signed a six-week abortion ban into law — but Florida’s governor may not have his finger on the political pulse, as polls show that about two-thirds of Americans support abortion rights.

Following the 2022 Supreme Court overturn of Roe v. Wade, states across the country have tightened their grip on abortion, but support for such restrictions has steadily declined over the past decade and a half.

DeSantis’ latest signature law could come at a hefty cost if he jumps into the 2024 race — even a majority of Republicans in the red state of Florida oppose the six-week ban he just signed.

a poll A February survey conducted by the University of North Florida found that 75 percent of state residents opposed the six-week ban, including 61 percent of Republicans.

There was little change in public opinion in the months following Roe’s overthrow, though the threat of restriction mobilized Democrats and independent-minded voters over the past midterm cycle.

A whopping 64 percent of Americans think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to the latest Public Religion Research Institute data (PRRI.) Sixty-three percent disagreed with the decision to overthrow Roe.

The Supreme Court is provisionally allowing an abortion pill to remain on the market so that the drug remains available while the court rules next week on the administration’s emergency request.

The Supreme Court temporarily restores full access to FDA approval of the abortion drug mifepristone — the interim stay expires at midnight on Wednesday.

Thirty percent think abortion should be legal at all stages of pregnancy, 34 percent think it should be legal in most cases, 25 percent think it should be illegal in most cases, and 9 percent think it should be illegal in all cases must be.

Only 9 percent of Americans think abortion should be illegal in all cases and 25 percent think it should be illegal in most cases.

In 2010, only 55 percent of Americans thought abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

Since Roe was overthrown, 14 states have made abortion illegal or severely restricted it.

In Florida, DeSantis signed the Heartbeat Protection Act — which bans abortion around a month and a half of pregnancy when a fetal heartbeat is detected — and makes no exceptions for rape or incest unless a woman can prove she was the victim of such a crime.

If a woman can present a restraining order, police report, medical record or other evidence, she can have an abortion up to 15 weeks of pregnancy.

DeSantis seems to be hoping that in a presidential primary, the ban will attract evangelical voters who have been knocked out by Donald Trump. But he risks losing the support of independents and suburban voters, especially in a general election.

Strategists say he should have read the writing on the wall in states like Wisconsin — where liberals gained control of the state Supreme Court when Justice Janet Protasiewicz made expanding abortion rights the centerpiece of her campaign.

Abortion became illegal in Wisconsin after Roe’s overthrow as a result of an 1849 law banning the procedure. The new Liberal court is supposed to file a case to challenge that law.

“Every time a new strict law is enacted or a pill is banned, it becomes much harder for Republicans to hit Democrats whose views are extreme on the other side of the spectrum,” GOP strategist Doug Heye told DailyMail.com .

“This is especially true in swing states like North Carolina and Wisconsin.”

While it seems like DeSantis is working to strengthen his legislative record ahead of his presidential run, it would be a critical mistake for any Republican running for office to ignore that this is the first presidential election in a post-Dobbs era. world,” Jennifer added. Lim, founder of Republican Women for Progress.

As Rep. Nancy Mace reiterated this week, “women are watching,” and if the GOP continues to fail to deliver a more nuanced message, they will do so at their peril to further alienate discerning voters and mobilize Democrats in the run-up to 2024.’

Protesters show up for “Ohio March for Life” in support of ending abortion access in Ohio at the Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio, October 5, 2022

A flag reading “my body, my choice” waves in the wind across the street from the Florida State Capitol, where the House voted to ban abortions after six weeks on Thursday, April 13, 2023 in Tallahassee, Fla. .

DeSantis signed the Heartbeat Protection Act – which bans abortion around a month and a half of pregnancy when a fetal heartbeat is detected

While Trump is still the GOP’s top runaway candidate for 2024, the president faced some backlash from conservatives when he blamed abortion restrictions for the GOP’s underperformance in the medium term.

But abortion rights advocates will be quick to note that Trump appointed the judges who overthrew Roe.

After Senator Tim Scott created a presidential exploratory committee, the South Carolina Republican failed to pinpoint exactly where he stood on abortion. Scott, who often invokes his Christian faith in public speeches, said he would “absolutely” sign a 20-week abortion ban, but didn’t say whether that would go far enough.

“We need to have a federal limit on how far we can go, and that’s something we need to discuss,” Scott said in a local television interview in Manchester this week.

Presidential candidate Nikki Haley has also made deliberately vague comments on the matter.

“This is a personal issue for women and for men,” Haley said in Iowa this week. It should be treated with the respect it deserves. I don’t want unelected judges deciding something so personal.’

She pushed for finding a “consensus” on the issue, but said Republicans “shouldn’t let this become political football.”

“Let’s let the states sort this out,” Haley said. If Congress decides to do it – but don’t get involved in that game where they say ‘how many weeks, how many’ – no. Let’s figure out what we agree on first and then move on. This is about saving as many babies as we can. This is about supporting as many mothers as we can.”

Most Americans seem to be somewhere in the middle — a June 2022 Gallup poll found that 67 percent of Americans supported allowing first-trimester abortions, while second-trimester support fell to 36 percent and 20 percent in the third trimester.

When the Supreme Court overturned the federal right to an abortion within 20 weeks, which had been in effect for nearly 50 years, Judge Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion: “The power to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives. ‘

“Women on both sides of the abortion issue,” he wrote, should “seek to influence the legislative process by influencing public opinion, lobbying legislators, voting and running for office.”

A number of early factors suggest that pro-choice advocates appear to be winning the political battle. With abortion leading the way and in the middle of the 2022 midterm elections, an expected “red wave” in the House gave way to only a four-seat majority.

The Democrats held on to the Senate. They defended every state legislature under their control and overturned four more.

And last week a judge in Texas ruled that the FDA’s approval of the abortion pill mifepristone was invalid and said the drug should be taken off the market.

But an appeals court ruling this week said the drug could remain on the market while a lawsuit brought by anti-abortion groups against the FDA plays out. The temporary stay ends at midnight on Wednesday.

However, the appeals court blocked the shipment of the pill by mail — meaning those in states where abortion is banned can’t easily access it. It also blocked non-medical health care providers from prescribing mifepristone, saying the drug could only be used up to seven weeks into the pregnancy instead of ten.

But on Thursday afternoon, another judge in a separate mifepristone case issued an order requiring the FDA not to restrict access to the drug in much of the country.

The federal court’s dueling orders mean the Supreme Court may have to step in — the Justice Department appealed the case to the Supreme Court on Friday.

A majority of Americans – 53 percent – believe that medication abortion should be legal in their state, while half of Americans (22 percent) believe it should be illegal. Another 24 percent say they are not sure.