While it is highly unlikely, given that extremists on both sides drive the train, you can at least imagine a deal in which a national standard of, say, 15 weeks is established for abortions. Lindsey Graham’s proposal sounds like that deal at first blush, but it is in reality something quite different.
Graham’s legislation wouldn’t apply to red states with stricter standards. As a result, it creates a national ceiling for abortion rights, but not a floor. It is thus purely a mechanism to restrict rights in blue states.
The proposal is being sold as a “compromise.” It is a compromise between the most extreme elements of the anti-abortion crowd and more moderate abortion opponents within the GOP. It does not consider the interests or opinions of the vast majority of Americans, who support abortion rights, at all.
What this proposal actually does is illustrate the hypocrisy of a party that long purported to believe in states’ rights on the abortion issue. It also strongly suggests that the filibuster is finished if the GOP wins control of both houses of Congress and the presidency, because a national abortion ban is going nowhere until then.