Many Republicans were dismayed by the federal abortion ban that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R–S.C.) unveiled this week, viewing it as politically unwise and constitutionally suspect. But yesterday Sen. Marco Rubio (R–Fla.), who is running for reelection this year, announced that he is co-sponsoring Graham's bill, which would prohibit abortion at 15 weeks of gestation or later. Rubio's support for the bill blatantly contradicts the position he was taking just a few weeks ago, when he said abortion regulation should be left to the states, and his avowed support for federalism more generally.
During an interview with CBS Miami's Jim DeFede in late August, Rubio explained the significance of the Supreme Court's June 24 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion. "All the Supreme Court has said is that now that debate is not going to happen in Washington, where it wasn't happening at all because of Roe v. Wade," Rubio said. "Now that decision has to be made at the state level. And the state legislature will weigh in. Florida has an abortion law; it cuts it off at 15 weeks. Every state will have its own law."
