With the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision and the 2024 presidential elections looming, the Democrats are doing everything they can to get on the same sheet of music. Especially when it comes to abortion according to Politico. However, when it comes to the specifics of how to make changes and what changes to make, they are incredibly fractured.
According to their report “Some Democrats see repealing parental notification and consent laws as a political liability, particularly as conservatives push parents’ rights to win popular support for changing school curricula and banning certain books from libraries.”
Yet those who are unwilling to go against parents are “frustrating some abortion rights advocates who want lawmakers to do whatever they can to expand access as red and purple states…debate or pass new restrictions of the procedure.”
Taking data from a Pew Research Center poll shows more momentum behind keeping parental notification and consent laws on the books. Conducted in 2022, the poll shows about 70% of Americans are in favor of parental notification for abortions seeking an abortion, and that includes 57% of Democrats surveyed. Over half also backed the idea of retaining parental consent laws.
As it stands now, even liberal-led states like Colorado, Maryland, and Massachusetts all have parental consent or notification in the event a minor has an abortion. In sort of an O Henry twist, Minnesota, Oregon, and Michigan are making laws or introducing bills to get rid of or change the process of required parental notification.
The states who are already incredibly abortion-friendly are opting to leave parental rights alone for now. Instead, they want to make certain they solidify the position of having abortions, making insurance companies cover abortions in their state, and making it unlawful for authorities to go after those performing abortions and those seeking them.
For people like Martha McKenna who have been in leadership positions with the Democrats and with organizations like EMILY’s List, the infamous feminist group, she sees things for Republicans to be in a stalemate. For her, the “conversation about parental consent is not happening in a vacuum for voters…Idaho is saying you can’t leave the state to get an abortion. The courts are saying you can’t get an abortion pill to manage an early abortion. Florida is saying nothing after six weeks. This is a much, much bigger problem for Republicans in the short and the long term.”
She’s not wrong, either.
Conservatives have suffered in our organization as a united front against abortion. Given the revelation that parental consent and notification would be paramount with abortion, there is ground to build on for them, and even with us. To defeat their abortion goals we will all need to come together to face it as one team, one fight.
Going against them to dismantle the system or make the process so arduous that the juice isn’t worth the squeeze has been the goal for decades. This is not an issue we can ever join them on. However, we can make them think we did by having them join us in oppressing the ability to obtain one.
Parental consent is the start. We get them to agree to that, next, we go to in-person consent. No having your friend’s mom vouch for you over the phone. Now we need the father’s consent as well. If both aren’t agreeing how can we kill another man’s child? Now we have to discuss how long until it becomes murder.
As you see, this process is a slow but methodical one. It gets some amazing results, and the Democrats get left wondering where it all went wrong. The answer would be when they first thought it was okay to take an unborn life.
