The ranks of cross-over Republicans in Congress who buck the party and support abortion rights are thin — and liable to shrink further even as lines around the polarizing issue are hardening, according to Politico.
Five Republicans are reliably pro-choice but one, New York Rep. Richard Hanna, is retiring and Illinois Reps. Bob Dold and Mark Kirk are in uphill races for re-election, Politico reported.
On the other side of the aisle, no more than seven Democrats in Congress cross over and regularly vote against abortion rights.
They are Sens. Robert Casey of Pennsylvania, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia; and Reps. Dan Lipinski of Illinois and Collin Peterson of Minnesota, who are often joined by Henry Cuellar of Texas and sometimes by Jim Langevin of Rhode Island.
Their ranks are unlikely to change next year, Politico reported.
"A lot of members object to those votes on women's health — they don't like it," Hanna told Politico. They don't "go to leadership and say, "I don't want to support this.'"
According to Politico, both parties are moving further to the extremes on abortion policy.
Hillary Clinton supports eliminating the 40-year ban on federal funding of abortion, and Donald Trump said Supreme Court nominees will be "pro-life" and pledged to defund Planned Parenthood.
"The orthodoxy of being a Republican is suffocating the ability to draw people from a broader spectrum," Hanna told Politico, saying there's no room for moderates any longer.
Peterson said Democratic Party endorsements weed out dissenting views like his own, telling Politico: "It is a litmus test in order to get through the endorsement process and past the activists — on both sides."
Hanna says if there are few or no Republicans to push back against anti-abortion bills, GOP leaders may be more likely to bring them to the floor. In addition to him, the Republicans who typically support abortion rights are Dold, Kirk and Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
Depending on the legislation, they are sometimes joined by others, such as Reps. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania and Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, Politico reported.
A poll conducted for Politico by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found majorities of voters want to maintain the ban on federal funding of abortion and funding for Planned Parenthood.
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