HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Abortion rights, suddenly a powerful political force following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to leave such issues to the states, have found an unexpected champion in the swing state of Pennsylvania.
Senator Bob Casey, who will run under President Joe Biden in November as both Democrats seek re-election, has begun doing something he has never done before: attacking an opponent over abortion rights.
The senator, who once described himself as a “pro-life Democrat,” accuses Republican challenger David McCormick in a recent TV ad of wanting to “make abortion illegal even in cases of rape and incest” – a characterization that McCormick says is false.
At an online event hosted by the progressive women’s rights group Red Wine & Blue earlier this month, Casey warned that the election of a Republican president and a recent Republican Senate majority could lead to a ban on the abortion pill and contraceptives, even in Democratic-controlled states – or in “liberal” states like Pennsylvania – where abortion remains legal.
“They could have an impact on the Democratic states, whether it’s a ban in the Democratic states when it comes to contraception, or whether it’s a ban in the Democratic states when it comes to abortions because of mifepristone,” Casey said.
That’s quite a reinterpretation for Casey, who, like his father and Biden, comes from an Irish Catholic family in Scranton. His father, a two-term governor of Pennsylvania, opposed abortion rights and signed laws restricting abortion that led to the landmark 1992 case Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
Senator Casey, whose campaign is crucial to Democrats’ efforts to defend their razor-thin majority in the Senate, says the Supreme Court’s decision to strip women of constitutional protections for abortion changed everything in the abortion debate and prompted a “pro-life Democrat” to advocate for abortion access.
Casey has suggested that “pro-life” never meant a complete ban on abortion without exceptions, at least not for him. After the court’s impending decision leaked, Casey supported the Democrats’ bill to keep abortion legal under the Roe v. Wade standard, which prohibits abortions only after viability, or about 24 weeks.
“Everyone in the Senate had to make a decision,” Casey told the Associated Press. “Basically, you had to decide whether you would support an abortion ban or not. And that was a decision you had to make. And the decision was also a decision about the legislation. … And I decided that I would support passing that bill and not end up in the abortion ban column.”
In the past, he had broken with Democrats when he supported bills that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks and blocked government funding for abortions.
However, he also stressed that the number of abortions must be reduced through services that prevent unwanted pregnancies and lend a hand pregnant women and newborn mothers. He also justified this with the state funding of Planned Parenthood.
When the court overturned Roe v. Wade, Casey sharply criticized it, saying it was a violation of a constitutional right and a unsafe decision that would not prevent abortions but would endanger women’s lives.
The Democrats have welcomed Casey’s recent position.
“I don’t think he ever wanted those (pro-life) beliefs to get in the way of abortion access, and now his position is more important than it was two years ago,” said Brittany Crampsie, a Democratic strategist.
Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis, who studies the history and politics of the abortion debate, believes Casey began turning away from the anti-abortion movement long before the court overturned Roe v. Wade.
He was likely attracted both by the Democratic Party’s growing support for abortion rights and by the growing rapprochement of anti-abortion groups with Republicans and Christian conservatives, Ziegler says.
“If you put politics aside, it’s possible that Casey has one of these liberal positions on abortion that doesn’t align with what the two movements are doing,” Ziegler said.
Many Americans have moderate views on abortion, Ziegler says, and Casey’s stance is in line with that of many Catholic laypeople. According to Pew Research Center polls, 56 percent of U.S. Catholics believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
Politically, abortion rights have been a winner in the voting since the court’s decision, even in conservative states like Ohio, Kansas and Kentucky, where the results favored maintaining legal access to abortion.
McCormick attacks Casey from the right. He accuses Casey of wanting to allow abortions “up until the moment of birth,” a slogan used by Republicans to attack the Democrats’ legislation, which provides an exception for abortions after the viability of the fetus in extremely uncommon cases when a doctor determines that the life or health of the mother is at risk.
Democrats believe that such decisions should be made by doctors, not the government.
McCormick, meanwhile, says he opposes abortion with three exceptions – rape, incest and to save the life of the mother – not just one exception, as Casey claims. McCormick also says he would not vote for a federal abortion ban.
Casey, who is currently in his eighth national campaign, has never used abortion rights as a weapon. But he has been on the defensive.
During the 2002 Democratic primary for governor, Casey said in a radio interview that he favored one exception, saving the life of the mother. However, if the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, if elected governor he would sign a law that included all three exceptions, including rape and incest, “and that would have the effect of reducing the number of abortions in the state.”
Casey ultimately lost to Ed Rendell, who received support from the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, which ran ads against him because of Casey’s opposition to abortion rights.
In the Senate election, Casey’s Republican opponents tried to question his credibility as a “pro-life” activist by pointing out that he had opposed the proposal to end federal funding to Planned Parenthood.
Casey was first recruited by the Democrats to run nationally in 2006, when he was still considered a “pro-life Democrat.” In his four Senate races, he never faced a solemn challenger in the primaries.
Republicans have called his evolution on the issue pure politics. They say he changed his position to survive the party’s leftward shift and was never truly against abortion, as his father was.
“I don’t know how you go from defending life to the ad he’s running against Dave McCormick,” said Matt Beynon, a Republican strategist who was involved in Lou Barletta’s unsuccessful campaign against Casey in 2018.
Democratic strategists insist that Casey’s evolution is natural and reflects a generational shift in which abortion is being discussed alongside health care and contraception.
Christine Jacobs, who founded an organization to elect Democratic women to the Pennsylvania legislature, said Casey has been thinking about it for years and talking about it with his staff.
Still, Democratic strategists are perplexed about whether Casey could have been the party’s unopposed nominee in 2024 if he had supported a ban when the party’s activists were mobilizing for abortion rights.
Today, it’s an academic question. But Jacobs – who, like Casey, grew up Catholic – believes there would have been enough outrage.
“I think he should have gotten out,” Jacobs said. “At least I’d like to think so.”
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Associated Press reporter Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed to this report. Follow Marc Levy at twitter.com/timelywriter.
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