Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, speaks in the course of the Palmetto Household Council’s Imaginative and prescient 24 nationwide conservative coverage discussion board in North Charleston, South Carolina, US, on Saturday, March 18, 2023. (Photograph: Sam Wolfe/Bloomberg through Getty Photographs)
South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham used to say that abortion is a state’s rights concern. That’s, till the Supreme Court docket overturned Roe v. Wade final 12 months—and Graham began pushing for a federal ban after 15 weeks of being pregnant.
However when CNN requested him about whether or not abortion is a federal concern on Sunday, he misplaced it.
“What the Democratic Celebration proposes on abortion is barbaric,” Graham advised CNN’s Dana Bash when he appeared on this system State of the Union, simply days after the Supreme Court docket dominated to maintain a secure and efficient abortion capsule in the marketplace. “Abortion up to date of delivery, taxpayer-funded—I feel is barbaric. I welcome this debate. I feel the Republican Celebration will probably be in good standing to oppose late-term abortion, like a lot of the civilized world.”
“It’s a human rights concern,” he added.
Graham’s characterization of Democrats’ place on abortion is deceptive. Most states, together with ones ruled by Democrats, have limits on abortions earlier than or at viability, which typically happens at round 24 weeks of being pregnant. And whereas abortion opponents wish to say that Roe v. Wade allowed abortions up till the second of delivery, that can be inaccurate: The landmark choice, overturned final 12 months, established that pregnant individuals have the suitable to an abortion up till viability, however let states regulate and even ban abortion past that.
Bash reminded Graham of that truth. “For the document, Roe went as much as viability,” she advised him. “However I simply wish to button this up—”
“No, no, give up masking for these guys! No, no no! Your media—you retain masking for these guys,” Graham interrupted. “They launched laws that allowed abortion on demand with taxpayer-funded, you paying for it, the taxpayer, up to date of delivery. That’s what their place in Washington. That’s the legislation they wish to go and no one in your small business will discuss it. That’s barbaric.”
“Senator, I’m not masking for anyone, and you understand that,” Bash replied.
Graham gave the impression to be referring to the Girls’s Well being Safety Act, a invoice launched by Senate Democrats in an try to codify Roe’s protections into legislation. The invoice failed.
Graham has beforehand flip-flopped on abortion and the way it ought to be dealt with. In Could 2022, earlier than the overturning of Roe, Graham tweeted that he thought the “most constitutionally sound method of coping with this concern” is to let states “determine if abortion is authorized and on what phrases.” However, in September, Graham proposed a federal 15-week abortion ban.
That proposal now places him squarely at odds with former President Donald Trump, who has each taken credit score for appointing the Supreme Court docket justices who helped overturn Roe and stated that he thinks states ought to set their very own abortion restrictions.
After Graham’s outburst, Bash requested Graham about Trump. “My query for you, sir, is about President Trump, who you’ve endorsed to be president once more,” she stated. “Is he proper in saying that this concern ought to be a states’ concern?”
“Anyone working for president who has a snowball’s probability of hell goes to be with me, the American individuals, and all of Europe saying late-term abortions ought to be off the desk,” Graham stated. “I’m assured that over time that’s the place our nominee will probably be.”
Regardless of Graham’s railing towards “late-term abortion,” that isn’t a medically correct time period. Being pregnant tends to final 40 weeks, and medical doctors use the phrase “late time period” to discuss with pregnancies that final past that time—to not discuss with abortions.
Most Individuals consider abortion ought to be authorized within the first three months of being pregnant, which is when greater than 90 % of all U.S. abortions happen. Nonetheless, 71 % of Individuals do suppose that abortion ought to be unlawful within the final three months of being pregnant, Gallup present in Could 2022.
Nonetheless, 75 % of Individuals additionally suppose abortion ought to be permitted within the final three months of being pregnant “when the girl’s life is endangered,” in accordance with Gallup polling from 2018. Roughly half of Individuals suppose it ought to be allowed “when the kid can be born with a life-threatening sickness” or “when the being pregnant was attributable to rape or incest.”
Lower than 1 % of abortions happen at or after 21 weeks of being pregnant, in accordance with knowledge from the CDC. The individuals who endure these abortions are continuously in search of them due to some type of well being emergency.