The Jolt: David Perdue opts out of call to repeal Roe v. Wade

POLITICAL INSIDER 4 hours ago

By Jim Galloway Greg Bluestein Tia Mitchell

As we’ve said many times before, the loudest dogs are often the ones that don’t bark.

On Thursday, Bloomberg reporter Steven Dennis noted on Twitter that 39 Republican members of the U.S. Senate had signed an amicus brief calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that established a constitutional right to an abortion.

The brief is attached to a Louisiana case expected to be heard in March.

Thirteen GOP senators didn’t sign the court document, including David Perdue of Georgia. Of those 13, eight – again including Perdue – are up for re-election this year. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine also withheld their signatures.

Consider it yet another sign that, even in Georgia, Republicans are worried about their standing with female voters. Perdue in particular may have wanted spare Kelly Loeffler additional first-week pressure. She’ll be sworn in on Monday as Georgia’s junior senator.

More on the Republican call for overturning previous SCOTUS rulings on abortion, via the Associated Press:

The brief goes further than Louisiana’s own brief to the court. The lawmakers urged the high court to not only reinstate the Louisiana law but also reconsider two major Supreme Court abortion rights decisions — the 1973 Roe v. Wade case that found that abortion is legal and the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision that upheld abortion but found some state restrictions could be allowed if they are not an undue burden for women seeking abortions.

The brief says the case “illustrates the unworkability of the ‘right to abortion’ found in Roe v. Wade … and the need for the Court to again take up the issue of whether Roe and Casey should be reconsidered and, if appropriate, overruled.”

https://www.ajc.com/blog/politics/the-jolt-david-perdue-opts-out-call-repeal-roe-wade/8rAPII8RYcV3AfeLLD6glM/