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SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

Meyerson on TAP

Graham Takes the Anti-Choice Campaign National

The senator's bill to create a nationwide abortion ban may look to him
like 'moderation,' but that's not how most voters will perceive
it.

What on earth was Lindsey Graham thinking when he introduced a bill to
establish a federal ban on abortion

earlier today?

The bill, which is backed by some other Republican senators as well,
prohibits abortion after 15 weeks. In a sense, Graham is acknowledging
that Republicans have to have something to say about abortion given its
newfound prominence. What he hopes his bill will say is that Republicans
are anti-abortion but will tolerate it during pregnancy's first
months. Of course, a dozen Republican-run states have now banned it
during those opening months as well, so Graham must hope that his entry
into the field will be viewed as a kinder, gentler version of this
infringement on fundamental rights, and will open a path for Republicans
to attack Democrats for being way too supportive of women's right to
choose.

I think, however, that Graham is wrong. His bill will be received not as
a burst of Republican moderation, but rather as an attempt to expand the
new restrictions on abortion from the state level to a nationwide one.
And nationwide bans on Americans exercising long-established individual
rights haven't historically generated much support. Consider, for
instance, Prohibition, which long had been the law in several states
before it became the law of the land.

The land, it turned out, couldn't stand it.

Graham's bill will mainly be viewed as meaning an abortion ban is
coming to every doctor's office near you, even if a clear majority in
your city or state would never enact such a ban. As such, it should
heighten, not diminish, the voting public's already well-established
equation of Republicans with punitive anti-choice policy. And given the
zeal of the Republican base for the total abolition of abortion rights,
it provides Democrats with an additional line of attack: If Republicans
were to control both Congress and the White House, what would stop them
from enacting a total nationwide ban on abortion-forget that 15-week
stuff-now that Graham has made clear that he and his cohorts support
making a ban a matter of national policy? For which reason, Graham's
bill will be viewed as greatly more intrusive in scope than he hopes it
will be viewed as moderate in substance. He has now nationalized what
was already a national issue, but in a way that makes more than 100
million Americans more directly subject to the anti-choicers' diktats.

Republicans were already in trouble from the moment the Court revoked

**Roe**. Graham's bill won't dispel that trouble; I suspect it will
only deepen it.

~ HAROLD MEYERSON

Follow Harold Meyerson on Twitter

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Warren, Pressley Ask Navient About 'Attempting to Scam' Student Loan
Borrowers

Emails from the servicing company entice borrowers to refinance into
private loans that wouldn't be eligible for the announced debt
forgiveness. BY DAVID DAYEN

[link removed]
Europe's Energy Crisis

Is there a solution anytime soon? And what are the spillover effects on
the U.S. and the global economy? BY ROBERT KUTTNER

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An Eleventh-Hour, Hail-Mary Climate Remedy

The Inflation Reduction Act promises to slash U.S. greenhouse gas
emissions, but enables more pollution in Gulf Coast communities. BY
DELGER ERDENESANAA

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