Democratic backing for late-term abortions galvanizes moribund GOP base

Democratic efforts to relax restrictions on late-term abortions in the states are re-energizing grassroots Republicans at a critical moment, as enthusiasm among Republicans wanes and concern about 2020 Democratic victories festers.

Republicans in Washington concede party morale has been moribund since the midterm elections swept Democrats to power in the House — doldrums compounded by a politically debilitating government shutdown. But they say phones have been ringing off the hook with activists clamoring to get back in the fight since New York approved legislation expanding access to third trimester abortions and similar proposals surfaced in Rhode Island and Virginia.

Democrats for several years have held the upper hand on key cultural issues such as abortion, with critical suburban female voters siding with the Democrats. But support for late-term abortion, deemed “infanticide” by many Republicans, has been historically thin. Party officials say the opportunity to go on the offensive against the Democrats is encouraging, giving them more hope about Trump's re-election prospects.

“What the Democrats have done, is to overreach,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said, telling the Washington Examiner that the women she has talked to about this issue are horrified. “They say, wait a minute, this isn’t right. Late-term abortions — aborting a baby up to term — that’s just not right.”

In New York, the new law enacted by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo reduces the threshold for allowing an abortion in the latter stages of the third trimester, when the baby might be viable outside the womb. Rather than just making a medical diagnosis that the life of the mother is threatened, now, a threat to the mother’s health is enough.