What’s next after Roe? For Republicans, joy but also uncertainty over changing debate
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What Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade means for abortion in Texas
The US Supreme Court has ruled on 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion case. Here is how the justices’ decision affects Texas.
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What’s next after Roe? For Republicans, joy but also uncertainty over changing debate
Republicans have finally won the political argument that kept voters boiling for half a century.
Now: What next?
Some Texas faith-and-values leaders are both thrilled at the Supreme Court decision on abortion and also worried that new state laws and debates over punishment won’t slow the loss of new lives.
Political experts, meanwhile, disagreed on whether Republicans can keep drawing votes to stop abortion — or whether the party needs a new rallying cry.
“The goal continues to be to make abortion unthinkable,” Mansfield Republican Kyleen Wright wrote by email. She is the president of Arlington-based Texans for Life.
She’d still like to see a new constitutional amendment prohibiting abortion nationwide in the U.S., along with tighter rules at every level.
“It is hard to say what comes next,” she wrote, that might “inspire the same level of passion and devotion .... [as] protecting human preborn babies and their mothers.”
Two evangelical pastors declined to comment about the politics of the issue. Both said much work remains to uphold the value of human life. One also expressed concern that young women might be targeted for punishment.
From the political side, older political scientists see the debate continuing on the details of state abortion bans.
“The issue will continue because abortions will continue, just transformed state-by-state,” wrote Richard Murray, a 56-year political science and public policy expert of the University of Houston.
The decision will help Democrats win votes in metro areas, but not enough to win Texas elections until 2024 or more likely 2026, he wrote.
Abortion remains the No. 1 concern for a large Republican Party faction.
“I’m dubious any ‘new’ issue can be ginned up to motivate the evangelical base like abortion has,” he wrote.
Forty-year TCU professor Jim Riddlesperger wrote that issues such as guns, LGBTQ status, gender, crime and immigration might draw voters, but not with the same passion.
After all, remember how today’s divide in America began.
All the bitterness and name-calling in politics today began when one side labeled the other “baby killers.”
“None of those issues have the staying power of abortion, in part because it was the critical issue that began the process of polarization to begin with,” he wrote.
The day after the decision, both sides will move on to debate abortion pills, crossing state lines and whether to punish employers for assisting.
Abortion is always an intensely personal matter, he wrote, not a legal question: “I have never once had anyone ask, ‘What is the law?’ “
University of Texas professor Eric McDaniel said he expects Republicans to continue campaigning fiercely against abortion but to escalate campaigns against LGBTQ rights and for more displays of faith in public life.
“The culture wars have been able to expand to so many areas that a victory on one front does not negate the continued war,” he wrote.
Weatherford College government instructor Darrell Castillo was on President Ronald Reagan’s White House staff during the rise of the anti-abortion movement.
“Republicans will now rally around the Second Amendment,” he wrote, saying abortion didn’t become a top issue for the entire Republican Party until statistics showed that white women were having abortions at a high rate.
“Pro-life was in essence more of a pro-birth stance more than anything else,” Castillo wrote.
The argument won’t stop now.
This story was originally published June 24, 2022 at 9:40 AM.
