South Dakota Senator John Thune says Democrats are using issue of abortion

Within the wake of the leaked Supreme Court docket draft opinion that might result in overturning the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade, South Dakota Senator John Thune informed “CBS Mornings” that he believes the difficulty must be by the hands of the individuals and their elected officers. 

“The query for lots of people goes to be, is it human life, and what does that imply? I feel what you are going to see is state legislatures… are going to have to seek out political consensus, and a few states are in all probability going to outline it otherwise,” Thune mentioned. 

The Republican senator voted towards a Democratic-led invoice this week to guard abortion entry on the federal degree.

All 50 Republicans plus Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia voted towards the invoice inflicting it to fail. Thune informed “CBS Mornings” that Democrats “knew the invoice was going to fail” however they’re utilizing the difficulty of abortion as a distraction to different points. 

“I feel that they are searching for one thing to distract from the economic system, inflation, the border, and a number of the points they’d quite not speak about. I feel this is a matter, this can be a clear pivot on their half to get on one thing they assume can play offense with. However quite a lot of it should come all the way down to the politics on this difficulty could be very contentious, all the time has been… How that performs politically stays to be seen,” he mentioned. 

Most polls, together with a CBS Information ballot carried out in November, indicated {that a} majority of Individuals supported leaving Roe in place. Thune mentioned that polls don’t take into account the various completely different situations that come into play.  

“For those who have a look at the way in which this polls, Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court docket choice mentioned that states curiosity turns into compelling at level of viability. Which retains transferring again. Proper now, 65% of Individuals do not assume it’s best to have abortions previous the primary trimester, so the tip of the second or third trimester. 80% of Individuals consider you should not have them after the second trimester,” he mentioned. “We’re actually out of step with the world… Most European nations, France is 12 weeks, Germany is 12 weeks. Most nations have discovered a political consensus round restrictions.”