For decades now, Republicans have been running on an anti-abortion platform. Much to the dismay of feminists, it seems to have done little to discourage voters from turning out for them. It's no wonder, then, that Republicans began to believe that voters either agreed with their anti-choice views or weren't really bothered by them. Then, in June, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, opening the door to a stampede of Republican-controlled state legislatures banning abortion. The result was a widespread backlash that made it quite clear that no, actually, the public does not support abortion bans. Instead, it seems that voters had spent years dismissing Republican anti-choice views as empty gestures to placate the religious right, not action plans. (The idea that right wing radicalism is "just talk" strikes again!)
Now the public understands Republicans are dead serious about banning abortion. Abortion has been totally banned in 13 states and banned at six weeks — which may as well be a total ban — in Georgia. Multiple other states have banned second trimester abortions, putting patients who don't discover fetal anomalies until that stage in crisis. Experts believe that soon abortion will be banned in half the states.
