November 2022 | The battle over abortion comes to the midterm elections

(Washington) With four months of very perilous legislative elections, the camp of Joe Biden hopes that the battle on abortion which is tearing the United States apart will provoke the political jump that the president desperately needs.

“Voters must be heard,” the Democratic leader called on Friday, assuring that “personal freedoms will be on the ballots” in November’s midterm elections.

Traditionally, this election during which the United States renews all the seats in the House of Representatives as well as a third of the Senate is unfavorable to the power in place, and mobilizes little.

But “abortion is one of the rare themes likely to capture attention” in favor of the Democrats, underlines Shana Gadarian, professor of political science at Syracuse University, “because it is a question on which a large number of people have a clear opinion”.

However, she underlines, “public opinion is generally favorable to the right to abortion, and this is true even among Republicans”.

According to a CBS News/YouGov poll taken immediately after the Supreme Court buried abortion rights on Friday, 50% of Democrats said they were more likely to vote after the US law temple ruling.

Pills, IUDs, IVF

Well aware of these statistics, Democratic candidates across the country have decided to focus their campaign on this issue, hoping to turn the anger of their electorate into votes.

“The attacks will not stop there,” warned Cheri Beasley, candidate for the hotly contested seat of senator from North Carolina. “Access to contraceptive pills, in vitro fertilization, IUDs is also threatened,” she said, inviting voters to “run to the polls” in November.

“The stakes could not be higher, send me to Washington to protect Democratic values”, pleaded this weekend the Democrat of Pennsylvania John Fetterman, who will face in November a superstar surgeon, supported by Donald Trump, for a seat of senator.

On November 8, the Americans will also be called upon to vote on a whole series of local elections and will elect their governor in around thirty states, a position with very high stakes since it grants a right of veto to laws passed by its local assemblies. .

In the key state of Michigan, Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a candidate for re-election, has promised “to fight with all her might” to protect women’s right to abortion. She has already gone to court to prevent the implementation of a 1931 law banning abortion.

“Burn the United States”

In the Republican camp, which has widely applauded the cancellation of the right of American women to have an abortion, they are on the contrary trying to ensure that the Supreme Court’s decision does not become a poisoned gift that could repel the most moderate voters from their basis.

“Republicans will do everything they can to bring the debate back to inflation, the economy, and gas prices”, themes on which they have attacked Joe Biden for months, predicts pollster Carly Cooperman .

Candidate in a tight election in Nevada, where abortion is largely protected, Republican Adam Laxalt called for the Court’s decision not to “distract voters from the exorbitant prices, the rise in crime or crisis [migratoire] at our border.

Several high-ranking conservatives, such as Republican Lindsey Graham, were also quick to put the theme of security back at the heart of the discussions, accusing “anarchist” pro-choice demonstrators of wanting to “burn the United States”, although the outbursts in margin of the demonstrations were very limited.