Weeks after Roe v. Wade was overturned, Democrats and left-wing activists are attempting to find some ground to protect abortion.
The Senate Judiciary Committee convened yesterday to talk about the legal ramifications of the Dobbs decision. During the meeting, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz blasted Democrats for trying to paint the Supreme Court’s decision as a step backward for women in America.
“Part of the reason that Democrats in this hearing are painting the Dobbs decision in such apocalyptic terms is they know their view of abortion—which is unlimited abortion on demand up to the moment of birth, partial birth abortion, with government funding, with no parental notification, and no parental consent—is supported by a tiny minority of Americans,” said Cruz.
While polls show that the majority of Americans believe abortion should remain legal, most of them also believe there should be restrictions. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that out of 4,409 participants, more than half agreed abortion should be illegal in some cases.
Cruz also took aim at the Democrat Party’s radical shift on the issue as a departure from former President Bill Clinton’s position that abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare.”
“When Roe v. Wade was decided, one Democrat who spoke up against it was a fellow named Joseph Robinette Biden, who said in 1974, ‘I don’t like the Supreme Court decision on abortion. I think it went too far. I don’t think that a woman has the sole right to say what should happen to her body,'” said Cruz.
As recently as 2007, Biden said he supported a ban on late-term abortions. As the Democrat Party’s position shifted to embrace abortion on demand, so too has Biden’s.
Just weeks ago, every House Democrat but one (Texas’ U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar) voted against any restrictions on abortion, including bans on partial abortions.
Meanwhile, after legislation to legalize abortion nationwide stalled in the Senate, Democrats are now calling on Biden to declare abortion access a “public health emergency” and use executive power instead.
Cruz also revealed letters written by the Judiciary Committee’s chair, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), who said he believed the right to abortion is clearly not guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. Durbin also said in a 1989 letter that he supported banning abortion on demand and reversing the Roe decision.
Cruz ended his speech by stating the Supreme Court did not outlaw abortion, but instead gave the issue back to the voters for them to decide at the state level.
“Today’s Democratic Party is afraid of the voters on this issue,” said Cruz. “What the Supreme Court has done is return this deeply personal, deeply important, deeply contentious issues to the voters—to let the American people decide.”
