4A Thursday, February 29, 2024
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia I gainesvilletimes.com
NATION
McConnell to step down as Senate republican leader
Jacquelyn Martin Associated Press
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., walks off the
Senate floor after speaking, Wednesday, Feb. 28, at the Capitol
in Washington.
BY MICHAEL TACKETT
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Mitch
McConnell, the longest-serving
Senate leader in history who
maintained his power in the face
of dramatic convulsions in the
Republican Party for almost two
decades, will step down from that
position in November.
McConnell, who turned 82 last
week, announced his decision
Wednesday in the well of the
Senate, a place where he looked
in awe from its back benches in
1985 when he arrived and where
he grew increasingly comfortable
in the front row seat afforded the
party leaders.
“One of life's most
underappreciated talents is to know
when it's time to move on to life's
next chapter," he said. “So I stand
before you today... to say that this
will be my last term as Republican
leader of the Senate.”
His decision punctuates a
powerful ideological transition
underway in the Republican Party,
from Ronald Reagan's brand of
traditional conservatism and strong
international alliances, to the fiery,
often isolationist populism of
former President Donald Trump.
McConnell said he plans to serve
out his Senate term, which ends
in January 2027, “albeit from a
different seat in the chamber.”
His voice cracked with emotion
as he looked back on his career
and said it was time for a new
generation of leaders. Dozens
of members of his staff lined up
behind him on the back wall of
the chamber, some wiping away
tears, as family and friends looked
down from the gallery above.
Senators from both parties — most
of them taken by surprise by the
announcement — trickled into the
chamber as he spoke and shook his
hand after he finished.
Aides said McConnell's
announcement was unrelated to his
health. The Kentucky senator had
a concussion from a fall last year
and two public episodes where
his face briefly froze while he was
speaking.
“As I have been thinking about
when I would deliver some news
to the Senate, I always imagined
a moment when I had total clarity
and peace about the sunset of
my work,” McConnell said. “A
moment when I am certain I have
helped preserve the ideals I so
strongly believe. It arrived today.”
The senator had been under
increasing pressure from the
restive, and at times hostile wing
of his party that has aligned firmly
with Trump. The two have been
estranged since December 2020,
when McConnell refused to abide
Trump's lie that the election of
Democrat Joe Biden as president
was the product of fraud.
But while McConnell's critics
within the GOP conference had
grown louder, their numbers had
not grown appreciably larger, a
marker of McConnell’s strategic
and tactical skill and his ability to
understand the needs of his fellow
Republican senators.
McConnell gave no specific
reason for the timing of his
decision, which he has been
contemplating for months, but he
cited the recent death of his wife's
youngest sister as a moment that
prompted introspection. “The end
of my contributions are closer than
I'd prefer,” McConnell said.
But his remarks were also light
at times as he talked about the arc
of his Senate career.
He noted that when he arrived
in the Senate, “I was just happy
if anybody remembered my
name.” During his campaign in
1984, when Reagan was visiting
Kentucky, the president called him
“Mitch O'Donnell.”
McConnell endorsed Reagan's
view of America's role in the
world and the senator has persisted
in face of opposition, including
from Trump, that Congress should
include a foreign assistance
package that includes $60 billion
for Ukraine.
“I am unconflicted about the
good within our country and
the irreplaceable role we play
as the leader of the free world,”
McConnell said.
Against long odds he managed
to secure 22 Republican votes for
the package now being considered
by the House.
“Believe me, I know the politics
within my party at this particular
moment in time. I have many
faults. Misunderstanding politics
is not one of them,” McConnell
said. “That said, I believe more
strongly than ever that America's
global leadership is essential to
preserving the shining city on a hill
that Ronald Reagan discussed. For
as long as I am drawing breath on
this earth I will defend American
exceptionalism.”
After his speech, Sen. Susan
Collins, R-Maine, congratulated
him in a brief speech, saying that
she admired him “for stepping
forward when it wasn't popular to
do the right thing for our country
and our world.”
Trump has pulled the party hard
to the ideological right, questioning
longtime military alliances such
as NATO, international trade
agreements and pushing for a
severe crackdown on immigration,
all the while clinging to the
falsehood that the election was
stolen from him in 2020.
McConnell and Trump had
worked together in Trump's first
term, remaking the Supreme Court
and the federal judiciary in a far
more conservative image, and on
tax legislation. But there was also
friction from the start, with Trump
frequently sniping at the senator.
Their relationship has essentially
been over since Trump refused to
accept the results of the Electoral
College. But the rupture deepened
dramatically after the Jan. 6, 2021,
attack on the Capitol. McConnell
assigned blame and responsibility
to Trump and said that he should
be held to account through the
criminal justice system for his
actions.
McConnell's critics insist he
could have done more, including
voting to convict Trump during
his second impeachment trial.
McConnell did not, arguing that
since Trump was no longer in
office, he could not be subject to
impeachment.
Rather than fade from
prominence after the Capitol
riot, Trump continued to assert
his control over the party, and
finds himself on a clear glidepath
to the Republican nomination.
Other members of the Republican
Senate leadership have endorsed
Trump. McConnell has not, and
that has drawn criticism from other
Republican senators.
McConnell's path to power was
hardly linear, but from the day he
walked onto the Senate floor in
1985 and took his seat as the most
junior Republican senator, he set
his sights on being the party leader.
What set him apart was that so
many other Senate leaders wanted
to run for president. McConnell
wanted to run the Senate. He lost
races for lower party positions
before steadily ascending, and
finally became party leader in 2006
and has won nine straight elections.
He most recently beat back a
challenge led by Sen. Rick Scott of
Florida last November.
McConnell built his power
base by a combination of care
and nurturing of his members,
including understanding their
political imperatives. After seeing
the potential peril of a rising Tea
Party, he also established a super
political action committee, The
Senate Leadership Fund, which
has provided hundreds of millions
of dollars in support of Republican
candidates.
Despite the concerns about his
health, colleagues have said in
recent months that they believe
he has recovered. McConnell was
not impaired cognitively, but did
have some additional physical
limitations.
“I love the Senate,” he said. “It
has been my life. There may be
more distinguished members of
this body throughout our history,
but I doubt there are any with more
admiration for it.”
But, he added, “Father Time
remains undefeated. I am no
longer the young man sitting in
the back, hoping colleagues would
remember my name. It is time for
the next generation of leadership.”
There would be a time to
reminisce, he said, but not today.
“I still have enough gas in the
tank to thoroughly disappoint my
critics and I intend to do so with
all the enthusiasm which they have
become accustomed.”
Number of abortions performed is about the same, report finds
BY GEOFF MULVIHILL
Associated Press
The number of abortions
performed each month is
about the same as before
the U.S. Supreme Court
overturned Roe v. Wade
and the nationwide right to
abortion more than a year
and a half ago, a new report
finds.
The latest edition of the
#WeCount report conducted
for the Society of Family
Planning, a nonprofit
organization that promotes
research on abortion and
contraception, finds that
between 81,150 and 88,620
abortions took place each
month from July through
September of last year,
the most recent period for
which survey results are
available. Those numbers
are just slightly lower than
the monthly average of
about 86,800 from April
through June 2022, before
Roe and just after was
overturned.
But abortion data is
seasonal, and the same
survey found more
abortions across the U.S. in
the spring months of 2023
than it did in the period the
year before leading up to the
court's decision.
The report also finds that
prescriptions of abortion
pills by telemedicine
have become common,
accounting for about one
in every six abortions in the
most recent three months of
survey results.
“Even when a state bans
abortion, people continue
to need and seek abortion
care,” Alison Norris, a
professor at Ohio State
University's College of
Public Health and one of the
co-chairs of the study, said
in a statement. “We can't
let the overall consistent
number of abortions
nationally obscure the
incredible unmet need
and disastrous impact of
abortion bans on people
who already have the least
access.”
The report estimates
that if states had not been
allowed to ban abortion,
there would have been
a total of 120,000 more
during the survey period
in the 14 states where bans
on abortion at all stages of
pregnancy are now in place.
Although the number
of monthly abortions has
dropped to nearly zero in
states with bans, they have
risen in states that allow
abortion, including Florida,
Illinois and Kansas, which
border states with bans.
The tracking effort
collects monthly data
from providers across the
country, creating a snapshot
of abortion trends after Roe
v. Wade was overturned. In
some states, a portion of the
data is estimated. The effort
makes data public with less
than a six-month lag, giving
a picture of trends far faster
than annual reports from the
U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention,
where the most recent report
covers abortion in 2021.
The report does not cover
self-managed abortions
obtained outside the formal
health care system — such
as if someone gets abortion
pills from a friend without a
prescription.
The Supreme Court's
Dobbs v. Jackson ruling in
June 2022 brought about
immediate change in state
policies. Currently, 14
states are enforcing bans
on abortion in all stages of
pregnancy and two more
have bans that kick in after
the first six weeks — often
before women realize
they're pregnant. Other
Republican-controlled
states have imposed lighter
restrictions. Enforcement of
some bans has been put on
hold by courts.
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