Lindsey Graham's Abortion Ban, Which Would Override State Laws, Shows Contempt for Federalism

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

48% : They not only rely on an expansive understanding of the Commerce Clause to justify much of their agenda; they have explicitly cited the Commerce Clause as a license for Congress to override state decisions regarding abortion.
46% : Notwithstanding these relatively moderate elements, Graham's bill would establish a new precedent for national restrictions on the timing of abortion.
46% : The states, by contrast, retain a broad "police power" that, in the absence of Roe, can be used to restrict or prohibit abortion.
43% : But it is based on an audacious claim of congressional authority to regulate abortion that obliterates the constitutional distinction between state and federal powers.
42% : On the face of it, that "preference" is mandatory under the Constitution, which does not give Congress the authority to regulate abortion or any other medical practice.
41% : If Congress can force states to allow abortion, it can also prevent them from allowing it.
37% : In July, the Poynter Institute reported that 15 of 22 states with "new or forthcoming limits on abortion" did not make exceptions for rape or incest.
36% : Conversely, if Congress can restrict abortion under the Commerce Clause, it can also establish a statutory right that precludes state regulation.
34% : The compromise that Scalia envisioned -- letting states go their own way on abortion -- is today threatened by maximalists on both sides of the issue.
33% : But even the super-elastic Commerce Clause invented by the Court's precedents may not be malleable enough to cover a nationwide ban on abortion after 14 weeks of gestation.
28% : Graham's bill would permit abortion after the 15-week cutoff when a doctor deems it necessary to "save the life of a pregnant woman" or in cases involving rape or incest.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.