ICYMI: With Reproductive Freedom on the Line, Democratic Governors Are the “Last Line of Defense to Protect Abortion Rights”

In response to the draft Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, news coverage is putting Democratic governors in the spotlight for their critical role as the last lines of defense against the GOP’s coordinated efforts to ban abortion. As Democratic governors continue to take action to safeguard reproductive freedoms, the draft opinion underscores the high stakes of the 2022 elections and why governors’ races matter now more than ever.

In response to the brief, Democratic governors are vowing to keep abortion legal in their states and pushing Congress to do the same federally. Democratic governors from 17 states sent a letter urging Congress to “immediately take action to ensure that our nation does not go backward and that the rights of all Americans to access reproductive healthcare and abortion continue to be protected.”

Here’s what people across the country are reading about Democratic governors’ pivotal role in the fight to protect abortion access:

• From Rolling Stone: “In a post-Roe moment, much of the on-the-ground access to abortion will depend on the outcome of state-level races…Republicans have laws at the ready to ban abortion. Governors…stand in their way”

• From CNN: “…as a new era in the long fight for abortion rights appears near, it has also become clear that the Democrats best positioned to take action often reside far from Capitol Hill, occupying or vying for increasingly powerful state offices.”

• From the Washington Post, “…Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan — all have Democratic governors and GOP-controlled legislatures. Again and again and again, those Democratic governors have vetoed and/or vowed to block various GOP bills targeting abortion rights.”

• From the New York Times, “Without the court’s protection for abortion rights, states would be free to enforce their own restrictions or protections. That patchwork system is likely to shift the focus to governor’s races, where a state’s executive could have an outsize role in determining whether abortion is legal.”

• From the Washington Examiner: “’Hell no!’: Democratic governors mobilize to safeguard abortion”

• From the Hill: “The leaked draft ruling…also brought to the forefront a number of state-level races where abortion rights are likely to be decided in the coming years.”

“Democratic governors are the #1 obstacle standing in the way of the Republicans’ coordinated plot to criminalize abortion, arrest doctors who perform them, and throw women who receive them in jail,” said DGA Communications Director David Turner. “This draft opinion is a wake-up call to what’s at stake in governors’ races in November. Electing Democratic governors is our best and perhaps only hope of protecting reproductive rights.”