Although it’s been touched on lightly throughout the course of The Neverending Story, otherwise known as the process to nominate a 2020 Democratic candidate for president, the conversation about abortion rights was never so present on the debate stage as it was this past Friday in New Hampshire.
The lack of conversation on the subject during the debates is something that has been largely criticized by abortion rights advocates, especially considering moderators have made time to discuss such other obviously pressing issues as Ellen Degeneres hanging out with former president George W. Bush — a meeting with the gravest of implications for Americans at large with repercussions that will surely impact generations to come. Thank god we know everyone was totally fine with it.
Elizabeth Warren took one of the strongest stances of the night in favor of codifying Roe v. Wade as law in America. After acknowledging that access to abortion services is not just an issue of legality, but also of wealth, noting that even when abortion was illegal “rich women still got abortions,” she said that relying on courts to uphold the decision was not enough. “That means we should be pushing for a congressional solution as well.
This marks a significant departure from previous election cycles where candidates have been less stringent about how they would evaluate justices. The idea of a “litmus test,” or evaluating a justice’s nomination based on their stance on certain issues, had been largely rejected by Biden during his service as vice president, although his position now has seemingly evolved. “It’s a woman’s right to do that. Period,” Biden said, “And if you call that a litmus test, it’s a litmus test.
Following Friday debate, Democrats spoke Saturday at the Our Rights, Our Courts forum, where it became clear that while all the Democratic candidates are in support of the right to choice, not all have the same understanding of the issue or of its importance. Andrew Yang showed that he perhaps understood it least when he said, “We have to get back to the point where nobody should be celebrating abortion... it’s a tragedy, to me, if someone decides they don’t want to have a child...
There’s not much to understand, you’re bringing helpless children to the guillotine