As I watched the results of the 2022 midterm elections come in, a few thoughts in particular crossed my mind.
Some had to do with being tired, as I was working with political campaigns at the time, and election day was a very long workday. But most had to do with the many people I had talked to during that campaign cycle and how important issues to them seemed to be reflected in the election results.
Of these issues, none was more important than abortion, as the Supreme Court had overturned Roe v. Wade that June. And as the results came in, you could see the impact it was having.
If you follow politics, you’ll remember that the 2022 midterms were widely expected to bring a “red wave,” meaning that Republicans were about to win a big majority in Congress.
But this didn’t happen, and not only was it not a red wave, but the Republican Party vastly underperformed in an overall historical context. Republicans barely took the House, while Democrats held the Senate and gained ground in several key state elections.
Watching this unfold, it was not surprising. Throughout that campaign cycle, it felt like most conversations I had—whether with a Democrat, a Republican, or just someone in casual conversation—eventually circled back to abortion.
The Supreme Court’s decision didn’t just change the law—it also affected how Americans talked about politics, understood rights, and thought about the moral and ethical values that guide our lives. Abortion became something that wasn’t a distant policy fight anymore, as it seemed to have been for years. It was real, personal, immediate, and for many, non-negotiable.
This has been the case ever since, and it raises crucial questions about the impact of abortion moving forward. In this article, we’ll examine what role abortion will continue to play in shaping our politics and how we should approach the issue of abortion and the debate surrounding it moving forward.
