Yes….
Middle Ground…..
12 weeks means abortions ARE AVAILABLE in those states…
Some anti-abortion people looking for outright bans ARE NOT happy…..
But Republicans CAN read and taking away abortion access IS costing them votes……
“We can’t live at the extremes,” North Carolina Sen. Amy Galey (R) said in an interview. “As a country, we can find a way to take a difficult issue and resolve it without a huge amount of acrimony and viciousness.”
Immediately after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Republican lawmakers were quick to embrace so-called “trigger” bans designed to take effect as soon as the decision was released, while others rushed to pass additional restrictions that would halt the procedure in their states, sometimes backing proposals that did not include exceptions for rape or incest.
Now, almost a year later, lawmakers in some Republican-led states have started coalescing behind bans that allow most abortions to continue — a reaction, some Republicans say, to the sustained political backlash to abortion restrictions that has been mounting since the landmark decision in June.
While the 12-week bans have so far only passed in two states — North Carolina and Nebraska — the proposal has also gained traction with some national antiabortion groups who say they’re supportive of restricting abortions as far as a state can, including Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which has also been pushing for, at minimum, national limits on abortion at 15 weeks.
But the approach has drawn sharp criticism from others in the antiabortion movement, who argue the 12 or 15 week bans don’t do enough to stop what they see as widespread murder, allowing more than 90 percent of abortions to continue. Some Republican lawmakers and antiabortion advocates remain adamant that the only path forward is to aim to eradicate abortion completely nationwide….
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A majority of Americans want to keep abortion legal in all or most cases, several polls have shown in recent months.
Yet support for abortion limits increases as pregnancy progresses through the second trimester, which starts at 13 weeks. An April Fox News poll found 54 percent of registered voters nationally favored a law banning most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy in their state with an exception for medical emergencies. In an AP-NORC poll, 57 percent of adults said abortion should be illegal in most or all cases in the second trimester, while a small majority — 53 percent — supported abortion rights up to 15 weeks. Many countries around the world — including most European nations — limit abortions around the beginning of the second trimester….
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“There are Republicans who are looking at this and saying we can’t just cater to the antiabortion and the primary voter because there’s a lot of voters now who care about abortion,” she said. “It may actually backfire on us.”
In the months since Roe was overturned, voters have repeatedly demonstrated support for abortion rights, striking down antiabortion amendments even in conservative states such as Kentucky and Kansas. The 2022 midterms, in which a number of Democrats won competitive races after making abortion rights a central issue, were widely viewed as a danger sign for Republicans….
“North Carolina Republicans jumped out on a limb this week when they passed a controversial new abortion ban. Democrats are now rushing to saw it off,” CNN reports.
“The state GOP legislative supermajority’s decision to override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the measure sharpened the stakes for next year’s elections – and gave Democrats new impetus to invest up and down the North Carolina ballot.”
“At the top of the ticket, President Joe Biden’s campaign is already drawing up plans to focus on the ban, which outlaws most abortions after 12 weeks, in its bid to win a state last captured by a Democratic presidential candidate in 2008.”