Can Abortion Save Democracy?

Repro rights are shining a light on just how far the GOP will go

Late last year, Planned Parenthood president Alexis McGill Johnson sparked a conservative media firestorm when she said that abortion would “save democracy.” McGill Johnson—quoting Mini Timmaraju, president of Reproductive Rights for All—was talking about about the fight over pro-choice ballot measures, and how voters were seeing “how it’s possible that you can have a state where there is majority support, but you actually can’t have the laws that you want.”

The idea was that with Americans getting a front-row seat to the Republican attacks on democracy, it would only be a matter of time before voters would get very, very pissed off. Now, here we are. Voters are pissed off. And in the wake of a pro-choice ballot measure passing in Ohio, Americans across the country are asking why they can’t vote directly on abortion, too.

Only about half of the country has the ability to bring a measure forward; the other half has to depend on their legislators to put issues on the ballot. But because abortion has been front page news for months, voters who haven’t necessarily thought about ballot measures before are now interested. 

A columnist at Louisiana’s Times-Picayune, for example, wrote in September about readers contacting her after finding out that Ohio activists put abortion on the ballot—they wanted to know how to do the same. She had to tell them that they couldn’t:

“Louisiana, along with about half the states around the country, has no mechanism for putting citizen-led questions of policy and governance on the ballot. Instead, all proposed constitutional amendments must originate in the Louisiana Legislature—yes, the same Legislature that adopted the unpopular abortion policy by a wide margin in the first place. Fat chance of that happening.”

Still, Louisiana voters were so interested in an abortion rights ballot measures that the question came up in a September gubernatorial debate—candidates were asked whether they’d change the rules to allow citizen-led initiatives. (The sole Democratic candidate, Shawn Wilson, was the only one who said yes.)

Similarly, in Mississippi, the Democratic candidate for Secretary of State, Ty Pinkins, called out incumbent Michael Watson and other Republicans over ballot measures—saying they “stripped away our ballot initiative process, completely eliminating our right to take issues directly to voters.” (Mississippi legislators considered reinstating the initiative process earlier this year, but with the specific caveat that measures could not be used to restore abortion rights.) 

Wilson and Pinkins, both long-shot candidates, didn’t win their elections. But the fact that the issue was forced to the table in deep red states is incredibly important. In Mississippi, Republicans were even nervous enough that Watson changed his ballot measure stance—saying the state should revive the initiative process. 

Voters are asking about ballot initiatives in Iowa, too. Bleeding Heartland reports readers increasingly questioning why Democrats in the state aren’t trying to put abortion on the ballot, given that the majority of voters believe ending a pregnancy should be legal. As was the case in Louisiana, the reporter had to explain that it’s not an option. (And that Republicans wouldn’t dare risk putting abortion on the ballot right now.)

And in North Carolina, the editorial board of The Charlotte Observer called out Republicans this week, issuing a specific challenge:

“Come on, North Carolina Republicans. Put abortion on the ballot. What are you afraid of?

After all, they point out, Republicans assured voters that the recently-passed 12-week abortion ban was reasonable, mainstream legislation that the majority of North Carolinians supported. “If that’s true,” the board writes, “they shouldn’t have a problem with putting it to a test.”

This kind of pressure on GOP lawmakers is only going to grow. It’s going to get more and more difficult for Republicans to claim they support “commonsense” abortion policies in line with the majority of Americans while simultaneously refusing those Americans a direct say. The hypocrisy isn’t lost on voters, who are watching in real time as their elected officials work to pass laws that the majority of them oppose.

And while it’s the popularity of abortion rights drawing attention to Republicans’ attacks on democracy, voters don’t like to be tricked, or lied to, no matter what the issue.

The very public post-Roe battles have been shining a light on everything from gerrymandering to state Supreme Court elections—and have given voters an up close look at all the different ways politicians try to stop them from having a say in their own lives and futures. The fact that it’s abortion driving that debate just makes the consequences more urgent—and voters’ anger more palpable.

Still, Republicans don’t seem to have gotten the memo. After Ohio’s pro-choice ballot measure win, for example, former Senator and conservative pundit Rick Santorum said the quiet part out loud:

“Thank goodness that most of the states in this country don’t allow you to put everything on the ballot, because pure democracies are not the way to run a country.”

What’s that quote again? When someone shows you who they are, believe them.