(LifeSiteNews) – The rapidly approaching 2022 midterms will be among the most important elections of our lifetimes, not least of all because of their massive implications for millions of unborn babies.
Critical state and federal elections in less than two weeks will determine whether Democrats will finally be able to enact their radical abortion agenda or whether Republicans will have the votes to block it and continue advancing pro-life efforts, especially at the state level.
Of greatest importance is control of Congress: If Democrats net just two more seats in the U.S. Senate and hold onto their narrow majority in the House, they’ll abolish the filibuster and pass their extreme Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) with a simple majority vote.
The WHPA, Democrats’ signature abortion bill, would create a national “right” to have or perform an abortion up to viability and after viability with broad “health” exceptions, including for mental health.
The ultra-radical bill would nullify live-saving abortion bans that have taken effect in more than a dozen states since the reversal of Roe v. Wade and hundreds of other pro-life laws, including parental-consent requirements, partial-birth abortion bans, and health and safety regulations.
The pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute has warned that the WHPA endangers religious liberties and conscience rights as well: “The provisions of the proposed law would supersede current and future federal and state law, including the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.”
And it would also threaten the Hyde Amendment, which protects taxpayers from directly funding abortion and saves an estimated 60,000 lives per year:
[…] unless exempted under the insurance or medical coverage of abortions provision, the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits taxpayer funding of abortion, would be struck down if it was determined to increase the cost of abortion or “limit access” to abortions.
Every Democrat in Congress besides Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas has voted in favor of the WHPA. Joe Biden, moreover, has enthusiastically endorsed it and made clear that killing unborn babies is the singular priority of his administration.
The “first bill” he’ll send to Congress if Democrats sweep the midterms “will be to codify Roe v. Wade,” Biden recently told supporters. “And when Congress passes it, I’ll sign it in January, 50 years after Roe was first decided,” he added.
Following the overturn of Roe v. Wade in June, near-total abortion bans have taken effect in 13 states, impacting more than 100,000 abortions. Depending on the midterm elections and pending court cases, several other states could soon ban tens of thousands of additional abortions.
But a big night for Democrats would doom those pro-life victories and condemn potentially half a million or more unborn children to extinction before the next elections in 2024 as a direct result of Democratic policies.
It looks unlikely that Democrats will keep their House majority, however. Polling shows the GOP up by several points on the generic ballot amid disastrous economic indicators, and RealClearPolitics predicts Republicans winning at least 225 seats and rates another 37 seats as toss-ups. (218 seats are needed for a House majority). Other pollsters have similar forecasts.
The battle for the Senate is closer and more consequential. Taking back the Senate would mean that Republicans could block Biden’s leftist, pro-abortion nominees, including appointments to the Supreme Court in the event that a justices dies, which is a real possibility.
Justice Clarence Thomas will be 76 by the end of Biden’s first term, and Justice Samuel Alito will be 74. A would-be-assassin tried to kill Justice Brett Kavanaugh in his home this summer, and Justice Alito recently said that the leak of his majority opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade made the conservative justices “targets of assassination.”
Republicans need to net just one seat to flip the evenly-split 50-50 Senate. Their top pick-up opportunities include Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and New Hampshire. They’re also defending key seats in Wisconsin, North Carolina, Ohio, and Florida.
Babies’ lives hinge on state races
If Democrats don’t win the majorities they need to get their abortion agenda through Congress, high-stakes state races around the country could decide whether hundreds of thousands of babies live or die in post-Roe America.
Florida
Any further abortion restrictions in Florida require Gov. Ron DeSantis winning his re-election campaign.
Florida reported a staggering 79,648 abortions – 218 per day – in 2021.
DeSantis, who now has a double-digit polling advantage over his Democrat challenger Charlie Crist, has vowed to strengthen Florida’s pro-life protections beyond the 15-week ban that he signed in April.
DeSantis hasn’t revealed specific details, but he is expected to push for a fetal “heartbeat” law that would ban abortion at around five or six weeks.
Florida reported a staggering 79,648 abortions – 218 per day – in 2021.
Texas
In Texas, strongly pro-life Gov. Greg Abbott is running against radical pro-abortion Democrat Beto O’Rourke, who supports abortion up to the day before birth.
O’Rourke has vowed to use “every tool available to repeal” a pro-life law signed by Abbott last year that abolished virtually all of the state’s more than 51,000 annual legal abortions. O’Rourke has also pledged to “veto any future legislation” to restrict abortion, which would make it difficult for Republicans to crack down on rising illegal abortion pill trafficking and companies funding abortion travel, among other things.
Georgia
In Georgia, similarly radical Democratic governor candidate Stacey Abrams has said she would work to repeal Georgia’s six-week abortion ban and veto any additional bans or other pro-life measures if elected.
Abrams’ “reproductive freedom” plan includes pushing “all state law enforcement and prosecutors to resist the criminalization of abortion by deprioritizing abortion-related arrests and subsequent prosecution” and gutting taxpayer funding for pro-life pregnancy centers. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has dominated Abrams in polling for months.
Michigan
Michigan voters have a particularly stark choice in November, when they can decide to enshrine unlimited abortion into their constitution or put the state on a solid pro-life track.
Michigan voters have a particularly stark choice in November, when they can decide to enshrine unlimited abortion into their constitution or put the state on a solid pro-life track.
Abortion is directly on the ballot this year in Michigan, with a far-left constitutional amendment, Proposal 3, that would create a “fundamental right” to abortion through all nine months of pregnancy and gut the state’s abortion restrictions, including parental-consent requirements and a ban on taxpayer funding for abortion.
Michigan also has a ban from 1931 on the books that criminalizes abortion from conception except when “necessary to preserve the mother’s life.” That law, one of the strongest pro-life laws in the country, could eventually take effect if Proposal 3 fails, but Michigan’s top Democrats are doing everything they can to sabotage it. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has challenged the ban in court, and a state judge has blocked it for now at her request. Attorney General Dana Nessel has likewise promised not to enforce it.
Whitmer and Nessel are running in tough re-election campaigns against Republican challengers Tudor Dixon and Matthew DePerno, both of whom back the 1931 law. Michigan reported over 31,000 abortions in 2020.
RELATED: Whitmer vetoes funding for pro-life pregnancy care, ban on embryo-destructive research in Michigan
What’s more, the midterms will determine partisan control of the Michigan Supreme Court, which Whitmer has asked to declare a “right” to abortion in the state constitution. Democrats have a narrow 4-3 majority on the court. And Michigan’s highly competitive legislative races could result in Democrats retaking one or both chambers of the state legislature from Republicans.
Pennsylvania
Midterm elections in Pennsylvania could also decide whether potentially tens of thousands of babies live or die in the Keystone State in the coming years.
Republicans hold majorities in both chambers of the Pennsylvania legislature and are expected to keep them, but they won’t be able to ban abortion without winning this year’s governor’s race. Pro-life GOP governor candidate Doug Mastriano trails his Democrat opponent, Josh Shapiro, by a wide margin.
Shapiro has promised to veto “any bill” that would restrict abortion, as outgoing Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf has done. Mastriano, by contrast, supports banning abortion with no exceptions and sponsored a heartbeat bill as a state senator.
Pennsylvania recorded 32,123 abortions in 2020, and that number will probably skyrocket as women seeking abortions continue to surge into Pennsylvania from states with bans.
RELATED: Michigan’s pro-abortion ballot initiative is more radical than voters think: pro-life activist
Arizona
In Arizona, pro-life Republican candidate Kari Lake is locked in a tight governor’s race with Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs, who supports abortion up to birth, though recent polling has shown Lake surging.
Arizona has an abortion ban from 1901 on the books that prohibits abortion except when “necessary to save” the mother’s life. It went into effect in September but was temporarily blocked this month.
Hobbs says she would spearhead a ballot measure to “repeal and replace” the law if elected governor and that, like fellow Democratic gubernatorial candidates around the country, she would veto any pro-life bills. Lake has strongly defended the 1901 ban and called it a “great law.”
Abortion is also a critical issue in this year’s state attorney general race to replace outgoing AG Mark Brnovich. The Republican candidate for attorney general, Abraham Hamadeh, has said that he will ensure that Arizona’s pro-life laws are “fully implemented,” while Democrat Kris Mayes has vowed that she “will not prosecute doctors, PAs, nurses, midwives, doulas or pharmacists for providing or women for receiving reproductive services.”
Republicans are defending razor-thin, two-vote majorities in both the state House and Senate as well, though the current legislative maps make it hard for Democrats to flip the chambers.
Arizona reported more than 13,000 abortions in 2020.
Wisconsin
A similar situation is playing out in Wisconsin, where Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul have refused to enforce a near-total abortion ban that predates Roe v. Wade and have challenged the law in court. Their GOP opponents, Tim Michels and Eric Toney, support the ban.
RELATED: Republican candidate for Wisconsin governor supports marriage as one-man, one-woman union
The state legislature is expected to remain solidly Republican.
Wisconsin reported 6,579 abortions in 2021.
North Carolina
In several states, typically obscure down-ballot races have massive, life-or-death ramifications for unborn babies this year following the fall of Roe v. Wade.
In North Carolina – another state with more than 30,000 abortions each year – Republicans could win supermajorities in the state legislature and ban abortion despite the opposition of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, whose term ends in 2025. They need three more seats in the House and two in the Senate.
In several states, typically obscure down-ballot races have massive, life-or-death implications for unborn babies this year.
It’s not clear what pro-life policies North Carolina Republicans would agree on, but GOP state Rep. Mark Pless has said that a heartbeat bill will be “the start of the conversation.”
The midterms will also decide which party controls the state supreme court, which currently has a 4-3 Democratic majority and a liberal streak.
Ohio
Republicans hold wide majorities in the Ohio legislature, and pro-life GOP Gov. Ron DeWine is strongly favored to win re-election. But Republicans also have to retain all three state supreme court seats on the ballot this year to keep their narrow 4-3 majority on the high court.
The Supreme Court of Ohio will likely decide the fate of the state’s currently blocked heartbeat law. An even stricter ban planned by GOP lawmakers could eventually come before the court as well.
At stake are more than 20,000 yearly abortions in Ohio.
Nebraska
In deep-red Nebraska, conservatives have a supermajority in the nonpartisan legislature, but have struggled to pass sweeping pro-life laws. Flipping two or three seats could give pro-lifers enough votes to enact a near-total abortion ban, like one that failed in the legislature this year by two votes. Otherwise, Nebraska could remain an abortion haven with over 2,000 abortions per year for the foreseeable future.
Montana
Down-ballot races could have major ramification for abortion in Montana as well. If Republicans net just two seats in the House, they will be able to place constitutional amendments on the ballot with no input from Democrats or call a convention to amend the Montana Constitution in favor of life.
Conservatives also have a chance to flip a seat on the Montana Supreme Court and upend the court’s 4-3 radical pro-abortion majority. Republican-backed candidate James Brown is running to unseat left-wing Justice Ingrid Gustafson. The Montana Supreme Court found a “constitutional right” to abortion in 1999.
Montana voters will consider a pro-life amendment on the ballot in November that would declare unborn babies who survive abortions “legal persons” and require doctors to give them medical care. Montana reported 1,675 abortions in 2020.
Kansas
Even though the pro-life Value Them Both Amendment failed in Kansas this summer, the fight for life in the state is far from over. Six of the seven justices on the Kansas Supreme Court, including four appointed by Democratic governors, are up for retention election in November. The court declared abortion a “fundamental right” in the Kansas Constitution in 2019.
If voters choose not to retain the justices, the governor will be able to pick their successors. To that end, Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, a fervent abortion supporter, is running in a difficult re-election campaign against Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt, who is generally pro-life. Schmidt has said that the demise of the Value Them Both Amendment “does not mean the discussion has ended.”
RELATED: Kansas governor vetoes bills to protect women’s sports, strengthen parental rights in education
Another amendment on the ballot in Kansas this year would allow the state lawmakers to nullify regulations – including those related to abortion – implemented by the executive branch.
Kansas, right now a major abortion haven in the midwest, recorded 7,845 abortions last year – a number that will likely grow.
Kentucky
Kentucky voters will vote on an amendment in the Bluegrass State that would change the Kentucky Constitution to explicitly state that it does not protect abortion or abortion funding. Following the overturn of Roe v. Wade, Kentucky has banned all abortions except when “necessary in reasonable medical judgment” to prevent death or serious risk of death of the mother due to a physical condition.
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Author Raymond Wolfe
