Brian Beutler argues that they should campaign on a promise to pass liberal abortion legislation if they win two more Senate seats and keep the House.
One drawback for them: If they do campaign on that idea and then lose — failing to pick up those Senate seats or the House — it could set back their cause by showing its limits in swaying voters.
And if they succeeded in the elections and then kept their promise? In some ways, the federal legislation most Democrats are backing goes beyond Roe and its successor cases. It eliminates parental-consent requirements that the Court has upheld. But in other ways, federal legislation inevitably falls short of the protection for abortion that the Supreme Court has provided. Pro-lifers probably wouldn’t have to wait nearly five decades before they could repeal or modify any legislation the Democrats passed.
If it seems like pro-Roe Democrats don’t have good options right now, it’s because they got so much of what they wanted from the courts for so long. They can only lose ground if this issue is subject to democracy.