It took Shawnna Bolick twenty minutes to explain why she voted against one of the strictest abortion bans in the USA, against her own opinion, against almost all of her party colleagues in the Arizona Senate and against the line of her party. The 49-year-old politician embodies the dilemma that the US Republicans have gotten themselves into with their extreme abortion policies. She was one of just two conservative votes to give Democrats a razor-thin majority in the small House chamber on Wednesday to overturn an 1864 ban on abortion.
It was “crazy,” said Anthony Kern, another Republican senator. By that he didn’t mean the law from a time when women didn’t even have the right to vote. It bans all abortions, including after rape and incest, unless the life of the pregnant woman is at risk. Rather, Kern found it crazy that Bolick justified her vote not ideologically, but in terms of real politics and recognized that life does not always want to adhere to pure doctrine. “Many women don’t have textbook pregnancies,” said Bolick, who herself suffered a miscarriage that required an abortion. The meeting was interrupted several times by shouts from the public galleries, where supporters and opponents of the ban had gathered.
Democrats and Republicans in Arizona had actually agreed to allow abortions up to the 15th week of pregnancy. But then the state’s Supreme Court issued a ruling in early April that revived the previously forgotten 1864 ban. The outcry was huge. The state in the southwest, known primarily for national parks such as the Grand Canyon, is one of the most hotly contested in the 2024 elections, one of three swing states in the so-called Sun Belt.
In surveys, two thirds were in favor of a far-reaching right to abortion
In Arizona, President Joe Biden and his Democrats are hoping for a chance of winning the election, especially if they can mobilize their support through controversial issues such as abortion rights. They collected signatures to write a right to abortion into the Arizona Constitution; The procedure would therefore be permitted until around the 24th week of pregnancy. The constitutional amendment will be voted on on Election Day, November 5th.
In surveys, two thirds of the population were in favor of extensive abortion rights. Republican Shawnna Bolick explained, among other things, why she voted against a ban that she actually supports. “We should work for maximum protection of unborn life that we can maintain,” she said. If the Republicans insisted on a very strict ban, the likelihood that voters would accept the constitutional amendment would increase. Bolick wants to prevent this by supporting the compromise, which includes a ban from the 15th week. When exactly this can come into force is still unclear due to various deadlines and court submissions; the strict ban from 1864 could apply until July.
Warnings from Vice President Kamala Harris
As in Arizona, Republicans in other states are struggling to find common ground on abortion. In Florida, a ban just went into effect after its sixth week, which Vice President Kamala Harris criticized during a speech in Jacksonville. She is currently touring the country speaking about abortion rights. In Florida, Democrats also secured a vote on a constitutional amendment for abortion rights.
Harris warned that if Donald Trump becomes president, these rights would be even more at risk than they are now. The Republican tries to stay away from the issue of abortion as much as possible because he knows that this will only lead to him losing out on the electorate. Trump was the one who gave conservatives the supermajority in the Supreme Court that abolished the right to abortion two years ago. However, he himself does not think ideologically on this topic.
A few weeks ago, Trump cautiously suggested perhaps agreeing on a ban after the 15th week, which immediately earned him angry criticism from Christian conservatives. Meanwhile, Trump dodges all questions about this by saying that states should determine their own abortion policies. However, he doesn’t manage to stay out of it completely. He just received new criticism in an interview with the magazine Time suggested that authorities in conservative states should also have the right to monitor pregnant women to enforce the abortion ban.