In the run-up to the midterm elections, polls pointed to inflation and the economy — not protecting abortion rights — as top issues among voters. Nonetheless, voters in California, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana and Vermont overwhelmingly voted to protect women’s right to an abortion — and voted in Democrats in the process. Citizen Board Member and MSNBC host Ali Velshi speaks with Alencia Johnson, founder and chief impact officer of 1063 West Broad and Jill Filipovic, journalist and author of H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness about the connections between protecting Roe and preserving democracy.
“When the question is asked directly to voters, they will make a decision,” says Johnson, who has previously worked with the Biden and Warren campaigns, as well as the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Voters, essentially, declared, “Maybe it’s better for the government to stay out of this question, to leave it to women and to leave it to their doctors,” says Filipovic.
“[Voters] saw it as a right that I had and that in my generation, in my lifetime, it was rolled back,” says Johnson, “If that isn’t a key indicator of where democracy is going, I don’t know what else is.”
Abortion, says Velshi, is on a continuum of the “preservation of individual rights in the U.S.” Preserving women’s autonomy is essential to preserving democracy.
Listen to Velshi’s message below:
Watch Velshi, Alencia Johnson and Jill Filipovic on Roe and the Midterms:
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