On abortion: The role of economics and political science for middle-of-the-road voters in a post-Roe world

Patrick T. Brown was a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, which is based in Washington, DC. He is also a former senior policy adviser to Congress’ Joint Economic Committee. Follow him on Twitter. His views are his own in this piece. CNN has more opinion on it.

This suggests the possibility for a renewed opening for Republicans to compete for middle-of-the-road voters who are conflicted about abortion but like the GOP’s economic agenda. There is no question that Republicans’ greatest political liability continues to be their lack of preparation for a post-Roe world. And if they are interested in swaying gettable voters, they should prove their seriousness about being authentically pro-life, not just anti-abortion.

Republicans trying to downplay the issue. In Arizona, where Masters is running for Senate, he scrubbed his site because it was pro-life, while in Nevada, where Laxalt is running, he has been running ads saying he lacks interest in changing the status quo.

Trying to hide the ball is not an effective approach to neutralizing progressive attacks on abortion. When the subject comes up, Republicans should remind voters not just of Democrats’ extreme stance on abortion, but stress the importance of addressing the economic and cultural factors that push women to consider it in the first place.

We know that abortion is a huge motivating force for voters who identify as Democrats. But for independents, the dynamic is more complex. A recent KFF Health Tracking Poll found one-third of Democratic women want to hear candidates talk about abortion, but only 16% of independent women share this sentiment.

In fact, polling by FiveThirtyEight suggests abortion has begun to fade from some voters’ minds, as inflation remains stubbornly high, crime rates stay elevated and fears of an economic downturn continue to grow. In the immediate wake of the Dobbs ruling in June, 29% of women aged 18 to 44 listed abortion as one of their top three political priorities. In a poll conducted in September, that number had dropped to 12%.

Imagine a voter who feels conflicted about the legality of abortion – personally opposed, maybe, but knows someone in their life who got an abortion because of economic pressures. If they were to pledge to champion the expansion of safety net programs that aim to reduce maternal mortality, they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who supports greater abortion restrictions.

Republican politicians have already changed in that direction. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, locked in a closer-than-expected reelection campaign, responded to the Dobbs ruling by unveiling a package of safety-net proposals that would boost resources available to pregnant mothers and catalyze on-the-ground programs that give moms and their babies the support they need.

Red states like Tennessee, Florida and South Carolina have opted into a federal program that provides postpartum Medicaid coverage for a year after birth, up from the previous standard of 60 days; it should be a no-brainer for every state that advances restrictions on abortion to follow suit. Texas and Indiana also passed new spending aimed at supporting low-income moms at the same time as passing restrictions on abortion, demonstrating their commitment to being pro-life both during and after pregnancy.

Not to mention, the issues Republicans did campaign on – banning books, eliminating some sex education and taking away transgender people’s access to health care – are deeply unpopular to us. Indeed, for all the time the GOP spent manufacturing culture wars, none of these so-called “parental rights” issues cracked the top 10 for voters going into the midterms, according to Gallup.

The traditional GOP politics are in the forefront of this. Abortion is “not an issue that you want to be talking about,” longtime Republican strategist Doug Heye told CNN. Democrats can go unanswered because the issue is not raised, and the GOP can be called into question for being pro-life.

Pay Up: The Future of Women and Work (and Why It’s Different Than You Think): The Case Against Abortion and the Economy in Michigan

The Marshall Plan for Moms was founded by Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code. She wrote “Pay Up: The Future of Women and Work (and Why It’s Different Than You Think)”. The views expressed here are hers. Read more opinion on CNN.

As the economy waned and pundits began to warn of a looming red wave, Michigan Gov.gthing put a stake in the ground.

“We have this tendency to say, Covid-19 was a she-cession… we’ve got to get women back in the workplace,’” the governor explained. “But you know how you do that? You empower women. Our ability to make the most important economic decisions when we are young is not taken away from us.

In the months that followed, commentators and pollsters breathlessly speculated about whether voters would prioritize abortion or the economy in casting their vote. Indeed, Republicans rejoiced – and Democrats despaired – in seeing both the Dow and the abortion decision backlash dip earlier this fall.

But for Whitmer, the choice between abortion and the economy was a false one. On the contrary, women’s reproductive health and their state’s economic future were inextricably linked – if you take away the former, you jeopardize the latter.

Clearly, the message hit home for voters: Whitmer won in a landslide against an anti-abortion extremist, racking up double-digit margins in a state that famously swung red back in 2016. Moreover, while about a quarter of voters nationwide ranked abortion as their top issue, that number was 45% in Michigan – a higher share than those who cited inflation in the state.

When it came to economic issues like gas prices and inflation, the candidates in red and blue were right to campaign. Both economists and voters believed that the Republican Party did not have a real plan to address them. Inflation has driven up the price of haircuts, potato chips, and soccer cleats, while soaring gas prices have us wanting to charge fees for every car ride.

But there are additional costs killing parents’ budgets every day. The price of child care, for one, is rising faster than inflation. In fact, it’s now the norm for pre-school to cost more than an in-state public university degree, contributing to a staggering 40% of parents going into debt well before their children have moved into a dorm.

The Cost of Pre-Karrior Care for a Child: The Effects of the Reagan Era on Black Families in the United States

Access to paid sick or family and medical leave for most employees is largely a matter for employers to decide, creating enormous gaps and implications for individual and public health, economic security and the robustness of the US economy.

Black women are particularly affected by the financial issue of whether or not to become one in the first place. Months after the Dobbs decision overturning, it’s more expensive than ever to raise a child – over $18,000 per year, per child for a working-class family, according to a Brookings Institution analysis. The Supreme Court requires you to have care for a child, and higher gas prices are not comparable to that cost.

Democrats can’t count on Republicans to make the same mistake twice. Over the next two years, they must convey to voters that reproductive freedom is economic freedom – and they can start by legislating that way.

They argued that Republicans need to reject the outdated, inflexible agenda of the Reagan era in order for working families to remain in welfare programs. If Republicans are to grow support among working-class, multiethnic voters, they say, the party must match pro-family rhetoric with pro-family investments.

These candidates offer a blueprint for a better nation – and, looking ahead to 2024, Democrats would be wise to take them and their strategy seriously. They have shown us a future where leaders talk about the pocketbook issues of their followers and prove they can get something done for the people.

It is a world in which parents of all political stripes can be certain that the party they elected is giving us a chance, too.

Editorial: Working Families Matter: The Pregnant Workers Fairness and Other Public Policies for Women and Families in the 21st Century

Editor’s Note: Vicki Shabo is a senior fellow at New America, a think tank in Washington, DC, where she focuses on paid family and medical leave and other work-family policies that advance gender, racial and economic equity. She has testified before Congress multiple times on America’s need for paid leave and other policies that support women’s workforce participation and earnings. She has her own opinions on the views expressed here. Read more opinion at CNN.

There is more that is needed. Policymakers should begin 2023 by taking a hard look at how public investments can better support families – and working people who deserve better should demand that they do.

The Covid-19 epidemic had health, care, and economic challenges. The racial justice reckoning that shone a bright light on systemic injustices and biases that prevent full economic opportunity and fair treatment for people of color. A historic number of worker strikes and labor actions. The Supreme Court made a decision regarding women’s reproductive health decisions.

In an upside-down world, where what is now public should be private and not seen as pubic concern or investment, what has long been seen as a pull-yourself-by-your-boot straps private must now be seen as public concern for women and families.

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act was part of the omnibus package and gives pregnant workers the ability to request reasonable accommodations such as carrying a waterbottle or sitting rather than standing, which are needed to protect their health.

Congress also finally closed gaps in current law through the PUMP Act, guaranteeing space, time and privacy for nursing workers in all jobs; prior to the passage of the PUMP Act, an estimated 13 million women of working age were excluded from current nursing mothers’ provisions.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/23/opinions/spending-bill-pregnant-workers-shabo/index.html

Family Care and Health Care Reform: An End-of-Year Omnibus Budget Measure That Works for Families with Children During the Pandemic

The Senate passed amendments to the end-of-year omnibus spending bill Thursday. It will go to the floor of the House Friday before the midnight deadline.

Family are mostly left to find child care or care for their own elderly and disabled family members, which affects their ability to work. Professional caregivers are underpaid and undervalued, creating instability and insecurity in the care workforce.

Meanwhile, tax credits for families with children are available only once a year, creating challenges for parents who need to buy shoes and clothes for their children, pay for band uniforms and field trips, or even put food on the table, despite studies showing how temporary advances to and increases in the Child Tax Credit (CTC) during the pandemic reduced child poverty and increased families’ well-being.

The reality that families’ work and care challenges are considered private comes on the heels of Dobbs, which paradoxically made private decisions about abortion and child-bearing matters of heightened public debate, after nearly 50 years of case law protecting reproductive health choices as part of all Americans’ constitutional right to privacy.

Never before in the lifetimes of most people alive today have medical choices been so constrained and so obscenely scrutinized, with harms especially to women in the southern United States, where abortion access is most limited, and to poor women and women of color whose maternal and infant health care access is less and who face greater risks associated with childbirth.

The omnibus spending package might be helpful. Millions of pregnant and nursing people in the workforce will benefit from the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and PUMP Act. This is the least Congress can do to help healthy pregnancies and babies. Increased spending for Child Care Block Development Grants and Head Start will help to shore up the existing child care system.

But significant work was left undone in this Congress. Despite the efforts of advocates and congressionalchampions, the omnibus package failed to reestablish the CTC enhancements that helped so many families during the Pandemic. The policy fights this year did not lead to the investments in paid family and medical leave, child care, and community based care proposed by President Biden and passed by the House of Representatives.

This most recent Congress has done other important things that show that the federal government can do good – and perhaps that provides hope for the future, as success can beget more action.

The Democrats’ American Rescue Plan included temporary investments to shore up child care and home care providers, reduce care-related costs for families, and provide families with more money and more flexibility through the advanced, enhanced CTC. Infrastructure legislation has been passed decades in the making and has bipartisan support because it is seen as a public good.

And Democrats in Congress also made historic investments this year in health care and clean energy and some adjustments to make the tax code more fair in the Inflation Reduction Act. Earlier this month, Congress also passed a law protecting the right of LGBTQ people to marry and did so on a bipartisan basis, something that would have been unthinkable even a couple of years ago.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/23/opinions/spending-bill-pregnant-workers-shabo/index.html

The Free Market Families: Towards the Reconciliation of Families in the Era of Economic Uncertainty and Poverty

There might be a path to go forward. The free market family is a term created by University of North Carolina law professor Maxine Eichner. The idea of family care and family support being personal, or subject to individual negotiations with employers, has been perpetuated by the private sector, libertarians and conservative ideologues.

After nearly three years of uncertainty for families due to the pandemic, and a fall season that saw a record number of parents out of the workforce because of care needs or illness, an increase in families’ economic hardships earlier this year after historic reductions, we should celebrate victories for pregnant and nursing workers.

The group has founded think tanks, published statements of principle and organized discussions with policymakers to push its cause. Mr. Cass said his own life had shaped his thought on policy. His wife works from home in western Massachusetts and they both work there.

Mr. Cass served as the domestic policy director for Mr. Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign; in 2020, he founded American Compass, a think tank that has tried to build conservative momentum for more generous government support to working families. Its priorities include child cash benefits, wage subsidies and even reviving the labor movement.

It is thought that the new entitlement program is related to the economic plight of many families. The pressures of wage stagnation, low marriage rates and the opioid epidemic have helped erode Republican anti-government orthodoxy, said Seth Dowland, a historian of the family values movement and professor of religion at Pacific Lutheran University.

“There are some Republicans looking at this and saying, ‘We need to invest in rebuilding families and rebuilding communities, because it’s dire in some places — and it’s our voters,’” he said.

Ms. Bachiochi, a mom of seven children, recalls struggling to write while babies were napping at the CERN SPS

The mother of seven children, Ms. Bachiochi is a fellow at two think tanks. She said that her husband is a tech executive and more of a baby person than she is. In an interview, she recalled struggling to get reading and writing done while her babies were napping.