With Roe in Peril, Campaign Donors Swivel to Statehouse Races
- States would regulate abortions if court overturns 1973 ruling
- Leak of draft opinion likely to open campaign cash floodgates
Demonstrators outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, on May 3.
Photographer: Ting Shen/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Political donations are poised to surge in key state races where the issue of abortion access will be decided if the half-century-old Roe v. Wade precedent is overturned, according to political operatives and campaign finance experts.
That’s because overturning the 1973 decision, as laid out in a draft Supreme Court decision leaked Monday night, would return to states the power to regulate or ban abortions. Single-issue groups battling over abortion have spent almost $300 million on federal elections over the last two decades according to OpenSecrets, with most of that money backing the side that supports abortion rights.