Women make up more than half of Georgia voters, and the 2024 presidential election will be the first presidential cycle since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Credit: Susan Beard Photography
Credit: Susan Beard Photography
Thursday on “Politically Georgia,” Errin Haines, the editor-at-large of the nonprofit newsroom The 19th, spoke about the role abortion will play in 2024.
“It is the first presidential election, at least in my lifetime as a political reporter, where abortion has really been front and center,” said Haines. “We’re really gonna be hearing about it on a debate stage on the campaign trail.”
Last month, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump released a video calling for each state to create legislation, saying, “Whatever they decide must be the law of the land.”
President Joe Biden pushed back, arguing Trump fostered “chaos” around abortion after appointing three conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices who helped overturn the landmark 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion in the United States.
“From [former] President Trump on down, there are a lot of Republicans that simply don’t have a response to the Post-Roe reality,” said Haines.
Haines has several ties to Georgia, including graduating from Oglethorpe University. She said the landscape around abortion has changed from the 2022 midterm elections in Georgia and other southern states.
“Even though there was a six-week ban in place in Georgia, people thought, ‘Well, maybe abortion is still available within a few 100 miles of me,’” said Haines. “Now, that is not really the case.”
Still, results from recent elections in Georgia show that abortion isn’t the sole issue on voters’ minds.
Georgia state Supreme Court candidate John Barrow made abortion a central focus of his campaign and lost the nonpartisan judicial election on May 21 to incumbent Justice Andrew Pinson.
Haines maintains that abortion is an important issue for female voters, but she also cautions against looking at women as single-issue voters.
“It is clear that so many of the issues, whether you’re talking about the economy, health care, education, the Supreme Court, all of those issues intersect with gender in such interesting ways,” said Haines.
More than 700,000 women in Georgia voted in this month’s primary election — a voting bloc that could be decisive in November.
“We (at the 19th) say that all issues are women’s issues,” said Haines, “And that women’s issues can be everybody’s issues if you just ask about them.”
AJC Data reporter Phoebe Quinton contributed to this article.
Friday on “Politically Georgia”: Georgia Republicans chairman Josh McKoon and Georgia Democrats chairwoman Nikema Williams join the show to discuss the fallout from the Trump verdict.
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