Does the Democratic Party represent the will of the people? Not always — and certainly not when it comes to abortion.
People support stricter abortion laws than Roe v. Wade and the court system allow. While banning elective abortion after 20 weeks is the earliest ban any court has upheld in the United States, it turns out the public supports banning elective abortion much earlier than that. Generally, people don’t think abortion should be legal after the first trimester, according to a poll the Associated Press released last week. It showed that 65% generally oppose second-trimester abortions, while 80% generally oppose third-trimester abortions.
Trimesters are key to understanding people’s views on abortion since, unfortunately, 61% generally support first-trimester abortion.
That’s how the public feels about this issue. How about the “party of democracy” that says it wants to expand democracy through H.R. 1?
The Democratic Party, generally, doesn’t reflect the view of the public on this issue. Some Democratic politicians want to restrict abortion and protect the unborn. Those people and organizations such as Democrats for Life of America deserve credit for having the courage to stand up to their party.
However, nationally, many high-profile politicians are extremists on the issue. There are Democrats such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Vice President Kamala Harris, and former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas who aren’t interested in any restrictions on abortion. Nearly every Democrat in Congress was against born-alive protections a couple of years ago, despite 77% agreeing that these newborn babies born following an attempted abortion should receive medical care, according to a February 2019 poll from the Susan B. Anthony List.
Politicians such as Warren, Harris, and O’Rourke argue that abortion is a decision to be left between a woman and her doctor. They don’t care about the general public’s opinion of the matter — and they don’t care about the life of the unborn human.
What people in the U.S. want on this issue is pretty standard in other first-world countries. Countries that ban elective abortion after 12 weeks or 90 days gestation include Ireland, Finland, Australia, and Norway, among others. Meanwhile, the U.S. currently is one of seven countries in the world that allows for elective abortion after 20 weeks. Nearly half of the countries on that list identify as communist: China, North Korea, and Vietnam. That is terrible company.
The opinion of the public on this issue is both encouraging and discouraging. It’s encouraging that people want more restrictions on abortion and that it shows that when people say they support Roe v. Wade, they probably don’t know what it means.
However, it’s discouraging that they generally support abortion in the first trimester. Whether an abortion takes place at eight weeks or 28 weeks, it kills a human being. One of those unborn humans is more developed than the other, but that shouldn’t determine the value of their life. People develop throughout their entire lives. Killing an innocent person at any stage of life is a horrible tragedy.
It seems as though many Democratic (and other pro-choice) politicians agree that public opinion is wrong as well, though for a different reason. They should come out and say it and stop pretending they care about the will of the people.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts. He is also a freelance writer who has been published in USA Today, the Boston Globe, Newsday, ESPN, the Detroit Free Press, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Federalist, and a number of other outlets.
