(NewsGlobal.com)- New York progressive Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is one of many Democrats who are up in arms following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn its landmark Roe v. Wade ruling.
Many Democrats have been promising big action to protect women’s rights and to return federal protections for abortions. President Joe Biden wants voters to “make their voices heard” in the upcoming midterm elections, as liberals are trying to use the high court decision as a way to try to hang onto control of Congress.
This week, AOC said she has ideas on how her party can “fix this and act.” On Twitter, she provided seven actions Democrats can take to that end. Her actions include restraining judicial review, expanding the court, putting abortion clinics on federal lands, expanding education and access to Plan C, repealing the Hyde Amendment, holding floor votes to codify cases that protect abortion and a person’s right to medical privacy, and voting on a bill to protect abortion clinics.
It’s quite the expansive list, with each action item not likely to see much progress in this Congress.
There are a few controversial items on AOC’s list, too. One is the notion of expanding the Supreme Court.
Democrats have floated this idea already in the past, once Biden took office with a liberal-led Congress. By increasing the number of justices on the high court, Democrats could theoretically stuff the court with more liberals, and tilt the power from the current conservative majority.
Of course, they better hurry and do this, since most political pundits believe liberals will lose control of Congress following the midterm elections. If they don’t hold the power in the Senate, they wouldn’t be able to push through Biden’s liberal nominees anyway.
AOC also called for the president to “open abortion clinics on federal lands in red states,” saying it would be “the babiest of the babiest of the baby steps” that could be taken right now.
The idea here is to offer abortion access in states that are already, or are preparing to, ban or severely limit abortion. States don’t have control over what happens on federal land, so the thinking is that by opening abortion clinics there, the U.S. government could get around what states decide to do.
AOC isn’t the only person to suggest this already. Senator Elizabeth Warren did the same this week, saying:
“[Biden should] explore just how much we can start using federal lands as a way to protect people who need access to abortions in all the states that either have banned abortions or are clearly on the threshold of doing so.”
Biden and his vice president, Kamala Harris, have already said this would be an unlikely scenario, though. There are too many hurdles to get over, too many logistics, and it just may not look good.
AOC’s other proposals seem to be in line with what a lot of other Democrats want, but they also seem like far-fetched ideas in the current political structure.
