Freedom of Choice

The GOP’s Disjointed Abortion Stance

California Republican Mike Garcia works to outlaw abortion nationwide while publicly framing the issue as one about local control.

“As a physician, I have been in the room where there’s some difficult conversations happening. I don’t want the federal government involved with that at all. I want women, doctors, local political leaders”

- Dr. Oz

Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash

With 64% of Americans opposing the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse nearly 50 years of precedent was an electoral nightmare for the party that had pushed for it. Even in ruby-red Kansas, 59% of the electorate voted against a measure stating that there was no right to abortion in the state. For a politician like Mike Garcia who is seeking re-election in a state where a ballot proposition to guarantee abortion rights is enjoying the support of 69% of the voters, the Supreme Court decision was especially concerning.

For a solution to his problem, Garcia followed the lead of many other Republicans and framed the court’s decision not as an assault on women’s rights, but as a state’s rights issue. It has worked for the party’s defense of the civil war, so why not use it again?

The following is the complete statement released by Garcia in response to the reversal of Roe V. Wade:

“As are with many issues, each state in the Union has its own laws. Today, the Supreme Court of the United States decided in overturning the past rulings of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey that the legality of abortions should be handed down to the states. Now, the states will decide what is best for their citizens. This is an issue of federalism as is laid out in the tenth amendment of the Constitution that the powers not delegated to the federal government are thereby delegated to the state government, and on down. The only thing that the Supreme Court determined today is that the constitutional path to legislate on this issue is now at the state level.

“As Californians, even…