Democrats are using Lindsey Graham's proposal to ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy as proof that Republicans want to restrict abortion nationwide if they win control of congress.
Democrats see another chance to use an issue that has appeared to boost their chances of holding at least one chamber of Congress as a way to leverage another issue.
The legislation was introduced less than three months after the Supreme Court struck down abortion rights.
Democrats lined up to condemn the bill that would make it harder to get an abortion in blue states as a result of Graham's announcement. The inflation report that sent the stock market plunging and was seen as a blow to the Biden administration's claims of a recovering economy distracted attention from it.
Some Republicans took a different approach after the high court ruled in favor of abortion rights. The federal government should not be involved in abortion law.
In Pennsylvania, one of a few battleground states that will determine which party wins the Senate, the new bill spurred Republican Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz to say that he would keep the federal government from interfering with state abortion rules. Herschel Walker said he would support Graham's legislation.
The Democratic candidates used the issue to bash their Republican opponents.
Oz needs to say if he would support the bill. Fetterman is the state's Democratic Senate nominee. I'll go first.
Some Republican political experts were confused by Graham. At a time when the fight over the House and Senate seems to have tightened, some media outlets panned it as an unforced error.
Georgia-based GOP strategist Jay Williams is not sure why he did it. He said that the Republicans should focus on the economy because President Joe Biden has low approval ratings.
Williams said that if you win the game you don't change strategies. I don't think it's a good idea to talk about anything else.
The way it will be sold to the public could hurt Republicans in the upcoming elections, according to a former Trump campaign aide.
The economy is the issue that is winning for Republicans right now and the issue they need to be focused on according to a political strategist.
Graham has not received much support from national GOP groups.
The National Republican Congressional Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the Republican National Committee have not promoted or mentioned Graham's bill on their social media accounts. According to the Meta Ad Library, none of those groups have launched ads on Facebook.
The RNC's account on social media accused two Democrats of refusing to recognize any limits to the procedure. On Wednesday, the National Republican Senatorial Committee criticized the abortion stance of Democratic Rep. Val Demings, who is running for Senate in Florida.
Graham's legislation was supposed to be a response to Democrat-led proposals to codify abortion protections. The bill was put forward in May in response to a draft of the court's ruling on abortion.
Graham said at a press conference Tuesday that they chose a bill that would not put them in the mainstream of the world but put them in a group of seven nations that allow abortion on demand.
Graham said his bill would set America's abortion policy in line with the rest of the world.
The senator thinks that should be where America is.
State abortion laws would stay the same under the plan. The companion bill was put forward by Rep. Chris Smith.
Graham's bill would restrict the procedure nationwide after less than four months of pregnancies, a threshold that falls within the second trimester. According to the health-policy nonprofit KFF, abortions are usually done at 21 weeks of pregnancy or later. The organization says that the phrase is not an official medical term and that abortions at that stage are hard to obtain.
The current Congress has a slim majority in the House and Senate. When the incumbent president's party has historically underperformed, Republicans are hoping to take over both chambers.
The high court's ruling in Dobbs has caused some forecasters to favor Democrats to keep control of the Senate. The odds of Democrats taking the House moved slightly after the ruling came out.
The public's opinion of the high court fell after the decision to overturn the abortion law by a majority that included three justices nominated by the president. The issue of abortion rights has gone up in importance among voters.
A Fox News poll in September found that a majority of voters support legal abortion in all or most cases.
The survey showed that voters disapproved of the decision by a 2 to 1 margin, as opposed to approving it. More than half of voters who see abortion as a main concern would vote for the Democrat in their House district.
Some Republicans have supported Graham's proposal.
When asked if he signed on to the bill because he was pro-life, he replied, "I have always been pro-life." The reporters were asked what abortion restrictions the Democrats would support.
The No.2 Senate Republican said he supported the bill. He said that it gives candidates a place to be for something that reflects their views and doesn't fit the Democrats' narrative.
Christopher Nicholas told CNBC that Graham's bill was the first strategic response from our side on this issue.
Nicholas said that it could force the Democrats to acknowledge that they only accept abortion on demand.
Other top Republicans either did not support or did not believe in the idea of individual states setting their own abortion laws.
McConnell said most of the members of his conference preferred that the bill be dealt with at the state level.
The chairman of the NRSC did not support the bill during an interview with Fox News.
Scott said what people are focused on is the economy, their children's education, and public safety. He said Democrats are focused on abortion.
Kevin Bishop, a spokesman for Graham, said that the senator has come on board.
Republicans have been against abortion for a long time, and many red states imposed blanket bans on the procedure after the Supreme Court legalized it. As polls show the majority of Americans disapprove of the court's ruling, many in the GOP are struggling to counter Democrats who have made abortion a major part of their message.
The issue of abortion has been used by Democrats to get more women to register to vote.
She said that she is aware of the fact that her party needs better messaging on the issue.
According to The Washington Post, the RNC advised campaigns to seek common ground on exceptions to abortion bans and to push Democrats on their own views. Candidates were encouraged by the national party to focus on crime and the economy.
Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said on the House floor that he was not hearing about abortion. What is their stance right now? America is interested in knowing.
As they compete in the general elections, some Republican candidates have softened their stance on abortion. The Democrats pounced on the renewed focus on the issue.
Walker thinks that the country doesn't have a national abortion ban.
Fetterman was going to hold a press conference in Philadelphia to speak out against the abortion ban. He pressed Oz to explain his position on the bill.
According to his spokeswoman, Oz is pro-life with three exceptions: life of the mother, rape and incest.
She said that he would want to make sure that the federal government did not interfere with the state's decisions on the topic.
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