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(AP) - Surrounded by states with abortion bans that took effect after Roe v. Wade fell, Illinois is one of the few places where the procedure remains legal in the Midwest.
Abortion-rights
supporters are worried that might not last. Their concern is shared in at least
a half-dozen states, and this year it’s not just about state legislatures. In
Illinois, Democrats hold a supermajority, and the governor, a Democrat, is
expected to win reelection.
Instead, Republicans
could be on the verge of winning control of the Illinois Supreme Court, where
Democrats currently hold a 4-3 majority. Two seats are up for election in
November, prompting groups that have normally set their sights on other offices
to concentrate attention and money on the judicial campaigns.
“Those are
the only things we’re focused on, because whoever wins control of the court
will decide whether abortion remains legal in Illinois,” said Terry Cosgrove,
president and CEO of Personal PAC, an abortion rights group that has endorsed
the two Democrats running for the high court.
The same
scene is playing out in other states with contentious high court races on the
ballot this year. After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe, state judicial
races have become even more important for Democratic groups working to protect
abortion rights.
“It’s increasingly clear that the way access
is playing out is at the state level, which puts the role of the court in stark
relief,” said Sarah Standiford, national campaigns director for Planned
Parenthood Action Fund.
The groups’
involvement in states such as Illinois, Michigan and Ohio is a preview of how
high-stakes normally sleepy court races are becoming.
In Illinois,
Appellate Court Justice Mary Kay O’Brien is raising concerns about abortion
rights as she runs against Republican Justice Michael Burke in a redrawn
district for a seat currently held by a retiring Democratic justice.
“Now with
Roe v. Wade being overturned, women’s freedom to choose in Illinois is at
risk,” a recently launched ad for O’Brien says.
Meanwhile,
the race for a court seat currently held by a Republican and covering counties
northwest of Chicago pits Republican former Sheriff Mark Curran against
Democrat Liz Rochford, a judge. Curran touted his opposition to abortion rights
when he ran unsuccessfully for Senate two years ago.
About $97
million was spent on state supreme court elections during the 2019-2020
election cycle, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York
University’s law school. Spending records could be shattered this year in
states targeted by the right and left.
One group is
Alliance for Justice Action Campaign, which supports abortion access. It plans
to reach voters in Michigan, North Carolina and Ohio.
“We were
already planning to be involved in these states, but Dobbs has heightened our
interest and heightened our sense of purpose and sense of mission on it,” said
Jake Faleschini, the group’s legal director for state courts, referring to the
U.S. Supreme Court decision.
The races’
importance was underscored recently when the Michigan Supreme Court, where
Democratic appointees hold a slim majority, overruled a decision by a state
certification board and allowed a constitutional amendment ensuring abortion
rights on the November ballot.
While
Michigan’s races are officially nonpartisan, the state’s political parties
nominate candidates. Democratic-backed Justice Richard Bernstein, who voted
with the court’s majority to put the abortion rights amendment on the ballot,
is up for reelection along with Republican Justice Brian Zahra, who voted
against it.
The
Republican Party also nominated Paul Hudson, while Democrats nominated Kyra
Bolden. The two top finishers in the five-candidate race get seats.
“Folks here
in Michigan are angry about the Roe decision. And I think that when they’re
looking for places to exercise their freedom to vote, they’re going to look to
the Supreme Court,” state Democratic Party Chair Lavora Barnes said.
Still, the
candidates insist they aren’t politicians and the role of the court is to be
nonpartisan.
Zahra, who
has served since 2011, described a justice’s role as saying “what the law is
and not what they think it ought to be.”
Abortion
rights groups also are closely watching Kansas, where six of the seven Supreme
Court justices face a statewide yes-or-no vote to stay on the bench for another
six years.
Two of the
six were in the 6-1 majority that in 2019 declared access to abortion a
“fundamental” right under the state Constitution, while another three were
appointed by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. The sixth justice on the ballot is
considered the state’s most conservative member.
Democrats,
moderate Republicans and others fear a quiet effort to remove justices after
Kansas voters in August decisively rejected a proposed amendment that would
have declared the state Constitution does not recognize a right to abortion. If
it had passed, the Republican-controlled Legislature could have greatly
restricted or banned the procedure.
The state
supreme court races that abortion rights supporters say they are most concerned
with are ones Republicans already have been targeting, but for other issues.
The
Republican State Leadership Committee said it plans to spend more than $5
million — a record amount for the group — on supreme court races in Illinois,
Michigan, North Carolina and Ohio. Spokesman Andrew Romeo said the group’s
focus is on redistricting.
In North
Carolina, where abortion remains legal and Democrats hold a 4-3 majority on the
high court, Republicans are trying to flip two seats.
Trey Allen,
the Republican hoping to unseat Democratic Justice Sam Ervin IV — whose
grandfather presided over the Watergate hearings in the U.S. Senate — has
accused the court of becoming too partisan.
“We need
justices who are going to follow the law in every case and leave their politics
aside,” he said during a recent forum.
Democratic
Appeals Court Judge Lucy Inman is vowing to keep the court “free of any
political agenda” as she runs against Republican Appeals Court Judge Richard
Dietz for a seat currently held by a retiring Democrat.
Abortion
also is likely to play a major role in a technically nonpartisan Kentucky
Supreme Court race this fall between longtime Republican state Rep. Joe Fischer
and the incumbent, Michelle Keller. Republicans are pushing hard for Fischer,
who sponsored the state’s “trigger law” ending abortion that took effect after
Dobbs and also is behind a proposed anti-abortion constitutional amendment on
the ballot.
In Ohio,
Republicans are trying to keep their 4-3 majority on the court, with two GOP
justices defending their seats. A third race pits two sitting justices — a
Republican and a Democrat — against each other for chief justice.
Ohio’s court
is likely to be another battleground over abortion after a county judge
temporarily blocked a ban that took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court’s
ruling. Rhiannon Carnes, co-founder and co-executive director of Ohio Women’s
Alliance Action Fund, said her group has been calling and texting voters, and
will be sending direct mail about the court races.
“There has
just been so much talk about the federal Supreme Court,” she said. “We have to
do more in the states about the influence and power of our state supreme
court.”
Associated
Press writers Joey Cappelletti in Lansing, Michigan; John Hanna in Topeka,
Kansas; Hannah Schoenbaum in Raleigh, North Carolina; Bruce Schreiner in
Louisville, Kentucky, and Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to
this report.
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