A powerful abortion advocacy group plans to spend at least $20 million to support pro-abortion Democratic candidates in 2020.
Emily’s List, which is based in Washington, D.C., plans to support both state and federal candidates who believe abortions should be legal for any reason up to birth and taxpayer-funded. Its goals include defeating President Donald Trump and pro-life lawmakers who defend the rights of unborn babies.
Two of the pro-abortion group’s big targets are Michigan and Minnesota, according to Michigan Public Radio.
In Michigan, the governor is a pro-abortion Democrat, but the state House and Senate are controlled by pro-life Republicans. Earlier this year, the legislature passed a bill to ban brutal dismemberment abortions that tear nearly fully formed unborn babies limb from limb while their hearts are still beating. However, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she would veto the bill.
Right to Life of Michigan recently launched a petition drive to override the governor’s veto – something Emily’s List hopes to work against.
“This effort was something we had in the works before that petition drive got started, but it’s just really adding more fuel to the fire, and really demonstrates… why we need to have pro-choice legislatures in both chambers,” Ianthe Metzger, deputy director of campaign communications for the pro-abortion group, told the local news.
She said their focus will be on electing pro-abortion Democratic women to the state House and Senate next year.
In Minnesota, Emily’s List wants to keep Democrats in control of the state House and take away Republicans’ control of the state Senate, MPR News reports.
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Here’s more from the report:
EMILY’S List president Stephanie Schriock said the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling to keep federal courts out of state redistricting battles has heightened the group’s interest.
“With redistricting just around the corner and the continued onslaught of anti-choice and other damaging legislation at the state levels, the stakes in our upcoming election could not be higher,” she said.
The group wants to spend in states where the legislature plays a role in the redistricting process. In Minnesota, the Legislature draws the state and congressional maps every 10 years and the governor can sign or veto them.
Emily’s List and other pro-abortion groups spend tens of millions of dollars on elections, but polls show their positions and those of the Democratic candidates they support are radically out of touch with most voters.
A new Gallup poll found that 60 percent of Americans want abortion legal “only in a few circumstances” (39 percent) or “illegal in all circumstances” (21 percent). That number jumped 7 percent from 2018.
The poll found an encouraging trend among pro-life voters as well. According to Gallup:
Consistent with all prior Gallup trends on the subject, most Americans say that abortion is not critical to their vote, but the percentage saying they would only vote for a candidate for major office who shares their views on abortion has been inching up over the past decade. The figure is now 29%, compared with 20% when Gallup last asked this in 2016 [Note—an increase of 9 points in just three years], and a low of 13% in 2008.
… Currently, 26% of pro-choice adults say they will only vote for a candidate who shares their views on abortion, up from 17% in 2016.
However, the matter continues to be more important as a voting issue to pro-life than pro-choice adults, as it has in every Gallup measure since 2004. Thirty-five percent of pro-life adults now say they will only vote for like-minded candidates on the issue, an increase from 23% in 2016.
