Democratic presidential candidates are seizing on new laws restricting abortion in states such as Alabama and Georgia as an opportunity to propose abortion policies and make pledges to not only preserve abortion access, but to expand it.
Some candidates are attempting to set themselves apart from the crowded field with their pledges.
Many, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., have said that they will appoint only Supreme Court justices who accept Roe v. Wade as settled law and support legislation to codify Roe v. Wade federally in order to preempt state and local restrictions. Several, including Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J, have also called to repeal the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funds from being spent on abortion services.
But some candidates are going even further, proposing unique abortion-related commitments and executive action.
Booker on Wednesday promised to create a White House Office of Reproductive Freedom on the first day of his presidency. The office would address “all barriers to full reproductive autonomy, such as access to health care, including maternal and infant health, quality, affordable child care, and comprehensive paid family leave,” a copy of Booker’s plan said.
Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro on Tuesday pledged to appoint “a cabinet that’s entirely pro-choice” in addition to appointing judges who “unequivocally recognize the precedent set by Roe v. Wade.”
[Opinion: 2020 is going to come down to one issue: Abortion]
Additionally, I will appoint judges who unequivocally recognize the precedent set by Roe v. Wade, and a cabinet that’s entirely pro-choice. At every agency in my administration, we will work to protect and expand access to women’s reproductive health care services.
— Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) May 21, 2019
Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke released abortion policy proposals Tuesday stating he would appoint an “Attorney General who would protect a woman’s constitutional right under Roe v. Wade to access the health care she needs and deserves in any litigation on this issue.”
Rather than pushing new policy proposals, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., used her campaign email list last week to ask supporters to donate to abortion groups, raising $160,000 for the Yellowhammer Fund, the Clinic Vest Project, ARC Southeast, and the National Network of Abortion Funds.
Sanders used the abortion discussion to push his Medicare for All proposal. “Medicare for All will provide comprehensive reproductive coverage, including abortions, so that everyone gets the care they need,” he said in a tweet Wednesday.
Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill this month that would restrict abortion after a heartbeat is detected, usually around the sixth week of pregnancy, but would provide exceptions in cases of rape, incest, or threats to the life of the mother.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, also a Republican, signed the nation’s strictest abortion law last week, which prohibits abortion in cases where the life of the mother is threatened or the fetus has a “fatal anomaly” that makes survival outside the womb unlikely. Under the law, performing an abortion would be a felony punishable by up to 99 years in prison.
The Georgia and Alabama laws have not taken effect.
