Recent polling found that overall support for abortion rights has increased since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, with 84 percent of Democrats, 62 percent of independents, and 33 percent of Republicans signaling their support to access.
That strong Democratic support for a woman’s right to choose could pose trouble for Senator Joseph Cryan, who declared at the outset of his legislative career that he would outlaw abortion except when pregnancy results from incest, rape, or the life of the woman is endangered.
Cryan is being challenged by a pro-choice Democratic woman, 3-term Roselle school board commissioner Angela Alvey-Wimbush, who also spent more than two decades as a classroom teacher and seems prepared to teach the unsavory senator a lesson.
In addition to his declared desire to ban abortion, Cryan cast the deciding vote for the GOP budget on June 28, 2010 to help Republican Governor Chris Christie close six Planned Parenthood clinics in New Jersey.
During the seventh 2016 Republican presidential debate, Christie boasted that he got “rid of Planned Parenthood funding” in New Jersey for the last six years. With 41 votes in the Assembly required for legislative approval, the Republican could not have closed six women’s health clinics without Cryan’s vote.
“Let me tell you something, when you see thousands upon thousands upon thousands of children being murdered in the womb, I can’t think of anything better than that,” said Christie, who was only able to accomplish his assault on women’s rights because he had Joe Cryan in his corner.
In fact, Cryan cast the deciding vote to pass legislation desired by Christie that the Union County lawmaker earned the nickname ‘Mr. 41’ among political insiders in Trenton.
Alvey-Wimbush said she believes all New Jerseyans should have the right to make their own decisions about birth control, abortion, and prenatal care, and she has strong support among Democratic voters who share her opinion.
Americans’ overall support for abortion rights has increased despite state legislatures and courtrooms across the U.S. implementing bans and restrictions on the medical procedure and medication, according to a PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll.
The poll found that 61 percent of respondents said they support abortion rights, while 37 percent of those surveyed said they opposed.
Nearly two in three Americans (64%) would oppose a law that bans access to medication abortion, that is, the use of a prescription pill or series of pills to end a pregnancy.
Nearly three in four Democrats (73%) and majorities of independents (57%) and Republicans (55%) oppose such laws.
The recent midterm elections demonstrated that abortion access is a difficult issue for conservatives to win on.
Anti-abortion lawmakers have sought to blend in with real progressive Democrats, by joining the majority on measures backed by a lopsided majority where their vote did not matter, but when he had the deciding vote, Cryan used it to shut down six Planned Parenthood women’s health clinics in New Jersey.
Voters in states like Montana and Kentucky rejected anti-abortion measures on the ballot while voters in California and Michigan voted to enshrine abortion access into their states’ constitutions.
With the U.S. Supreme Court weighing in on access to mifepristone, a prescription drug used to perform medication abortions, nearly two in three Americans say they oppose laws that ban access to medication abortions, and many believe federal judges should not have the right to overturn the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of a prescription drug.
The Supreme Court’s decision comes at a time when Americans’ confidence in the Court is at a low, and nearly seven in ten residents nationally say justices appointed to the Supreme Court should have limits placed on their tenure on the Bench. These findings are part of a larger survey on the issue of abortion which will be released on Wednesday, April 26, 2023.
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