Democrats appear to have chosen abortion and contraception as their last-minute effort to materialize support ahead of the midterms.
After the overturn of infamous abortion case Roe v. Wade, Democrats including President Joe Biden have joined a rallying cry to make abortion legal nationally, emphasizing the “chaos and heartache” of not being able to kill unborn children.
The pitch has now broadened to birth control, with one activist organization, Americans for Contraception, running ads in swing districts and college towns warning that Republicans are also looking to make birth control pills, condoms, and “your girlfriend’s IUD” illegal.
The group is targeting nine states — Arizona, California, Iowa, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas — and running ads on Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube.
One ad features a conversation at a bar between two male friends.
“Did you hear they’re voting against our right to condoms in Washington?” one man says.
“No, they’re not,” his friend replied in disbelief.
“Yeah, there’s a bill on contraception and 90 percent of Republicans in Congress voted against it,” the first man says before listing “the pill, condoms, your girlfriend’s IUD” as targets.
“That makes no sense, why would anyone vote against the right to condoms, the pill, or IUDs?” the second man asked, concerned. “We need that!”
The House of Representatives already voted to codify a “right” to contraceptives, with eight Republicans joining Democrats.
Those Republicans were: Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH), John Katko (R-NY), Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), Nancy Mace (R-SC), Maria Salazar (R-FL), and Fred Upton (R-MI).
Democrats have been sounding the alarm on the U.S. Supreme Court targeting other substantive due process cases, such as Griswold v. Connecticut (access to contraception), Lawrence v. Texas (striking down anti-sodomy laws), and Obergefell v. Hodges (right to same-sex marriage), after the overturn of Roe.
While it is unclear if the high court has the stomach for such a expansive substantive due process review, Justice Clarence Thomas noted those three cases plainly as ones the Court should reconsider in his concurring opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
“[I]n future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” Thomas wrote calling “any substantive due process decision … ‘demonstrably erroneous’” saying the Court has the duty to “‘correct the error’ established in those precedents.”
Although Thomas would prefer such a review, the actual majority opinion in Dobbs does not explicitly call these other precedents — or substantive due process for that matter — into question, with Justice Samuel Alito writing, “Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.”
According to USA Today, National Republican Congressional Committee Communications Director Michael McAdams said in response to the ads that “Democrats are panicked because their strategy of ignoring voters’ serious economic concerns is backfiring and now they have to resort to fearmongering false attacks.”
While the appetite among the conservative base remains unclear, there does not seem to be the political will among enough Republican members of Congress to make contraception illegal.
Breccan F. Thies is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @BreccanFThies.
