Following SCOTUS Oral Arguments, Adam Laxalt’s Opposition to Abortion Access Garners More National Attention

AP: Adam Laxalt joined GOP colleagues from other states in court briefs supporting strict abortion limits in Texas and Alabama.

Adam Laxalt spent his entire time in office fixated on restricting women’s reproductive rights, and his record is back in the spotlight with the Supreme Court considering a case that could overturn Roe v. Wade, Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health. 

Laxalt knows his extreme record opposing abortion rights puts him “out of step” with the majority of Nevadans, and Nevadans are already holding Laxalt accountable on “an incredibly powerful issue.” To date, Laxalt has yet to make a public comment defending his history of opposing women’s reproductive rights and instead called abortion a “distraction” when asked by the AP.

New York Times: Abortion Decision Could Spill Into Midterm Elections

  • That outcome, Democrats said, would transform the long fight over abortion rights from theory to reality and give new resonance to their arguments that a Democratic Congress is needed to protect access to the procedure and seat judges who are not hostile to abortion rights.
     
  • Party strategists say the abortion issue has already demonstrated salience in Nevada, another key race in the battle for Senate control. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, who is seeking re-election, is a strong proponent of abortion rights, while a leading Republican opponent, Adam Laxalt, opposes abortion rights and as attorney general joined efforts to limit the procedure.

Associated Press: Democrats hope threat to abortion rights will rouse voters

  • Democrats from Nevada to New Hampshire are promising to make abortion a centerpiece of their political strategy heading into the midterm elections, betting that an intense focus on the divisive issue can rally their voters.
     
  • “This isn’t crying wolf. This is actually happening,” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, who is facing a difficult reelection test in Nevada, said in an Associated Press interview. She took to the Senate floor Wednesday and warned,, “The reproductive freedom of women everywhere is in jeopardy,” before casting her Republican opponents as “anti-abortion extremists” in the interview.
     
  • Privately, some Republicans concede that a wave of dramatic new state restrictions on abortion that could follow the court’s ruling could change the conversation and disrupt their momentum heading into 2022. Twelve states have “trigger laws” that would immediately ban all or nearly all abortions if Roe is overturned, and other GOP-led states would likely move quickly as well.
     
  • In Nevada, a libertarian-leaning Western state, voters passed abortion rights protections in 1990 […] Former Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval supported abortion rights while in office, and in 2014 the state party removed an anti-abortion plank from its platform. But as attorney general, current Republican Senate candidate Adam Laxalt joined GOP colleagues from other states in court briefs supporting strict abortion limits in Texas and Alabama. 

Bloomberg: Democrats Poised to Grab Abortion Case as Fuel for 2022 Turnout

  • Democrats stand to gain a powerful campaign tool to gin up support just ahead of the 2022 congressional midterm elections, based on the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to roll back abortion rights […] The likely Republican nominee in Nevada, former state attorney general Adam Laxalt, has a record of opposing abortion rights.

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