In their most substantive debate statements to date on abortion, several of the leading Democratic presidential candidates reaffirmed on Friday night that if elected, they would put forward only Supreme Court nominees who supported Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision establishing a woman’s right to abortion. Historically, many presidential candidates have shied away from an outright litmus test on abortion or any other issue, arguing that Supreme Court justices should not be selected based on their political positions but on their experience and jurisprudence. But that has changed this campaign cycle. The Democratic candidates have also gone a step further and urged that the right to abortion be legislated, a call that several repeated on Friday during the discussion of an issue whose absence from previous debates has angered advocates. “I’ve lived in an America in which abortion was illegal, and rich women still got abortions, and that’s what we have to remember about this,” Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said, arguing that Roe v. Wade should be codified.

Source: New York Times February 08, 2020 03:45 UTC