What This Week's Wins For Abortion Rights Say About 2024

Diane Rehm: On My Mind

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🗓️ 9 November 2023

⏱️ 37 minutes

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Summary

Those in favor of abortion access notched several more victories in Tuesday’s elections. Reproductive rights played a role in Democratic wins in Virginia, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania. In Ohio, voters enshrined the right to abortion access in the state’s constitution.

“It has become very hard for Republicans to distance themselves from these laws that are now on the books,” says Mary Ziegler, professor at U.C. Davis School of Law.

Ziegler is one of the country’s leading experts on the law, history, and politics of reproduction in the United States. She joins Diane on On My Mind to discuss where the abortion debate goes from here and whether it will be a deciding factor in 2024.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I hit Diane on my mind, abortion.
0:09.8	Tuesday was election day and the issue of abortion again led to games for Democrats.
0:18.2	Reproductive rights played a role in Democratic victories in Virginia, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania.
0:27.0	In Ohio, voters enshrined the right to abortion access in the state's constitution.
0:35.0	As much as it feels as if voters can keep abortion rights secure,
0:39.0	it may not be up to voters, especially depending on what happens in 2024.
0:43.6	Mary Ziegler is a law professor at U.C. Day, the school of law.
0:48.9	She is one of the country's leading experts on the law, history, and politics of reproduction.
0:57.0	She joined me to discuss where the abortion debate goes from here and whether it could be a deciding factor in 2024. Mary the issue of abortion was certainly a plus for Democrats on Tuesday. Were you at all surprised by the result?
1:29.7	I think a little bit. I think we've seen obviously to date that abortion has been succeeding at the polls and we knew I think going into this that Ohio's issue one was poised to succeed so that didn't surprise me I think I was surprised by
1:49.1	the extent of the win in Virginia for Democrats that was a surprise so I think I was expecting it to be a good night for abortion
1:57.6	rights but not as good as it actually turned out to be
2:01.1	tell me about that measure in Ohio.
2:05.0	Yeah, so this measure was a first in the sense that it was an actual red state creating a right to abortion.
2:13.2	We've seen abortion rights wins in other Red States before,
2:16.9	but they've been more modest proposals,
2:18.6	usually defeats of ideas put forward
2:21.5	by abortion opponents. This was the first time a
2:23.6	Red State embraced abortion rights. But it had a pretty long and
2:27.8	fraught journey to election day. Republicans in Ohio first tried to raise the threshold for ballot initiatives in the state.
2:36.5	They then introduce some misinformation on government websites and on the And despite all that, the measure passed with well over 50% of the vote in Ohio.
2:58.3	You mentioned that this was in favor of abortion rights.
	...

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