Opinion: Democrats are missing a big opportunity

Editor’s Note: Raul A. Reyes is an attorney and a member of the USA Today board of contributors. Follow him on Twitter @RaulAReyes. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN.

With the midterms two months away, both parties are ramping up efforts to connect with Latino voters.

Republicans are investing in Latino outreach, while Democrats are pumping money into close races. Latino voters may play a key role in elections in Georgia, Florida, Arizona and Texas, and could decide which party gains (or keeps) control of Congress.

But so far, Democrats have not mobilized Latinos around the issue of abortion. This failure represents a missed opportunity to make gains in an election in which nearly 12 million Latinos are projected to vote.

Although many observers assume that Latinos are social conservatives who oppose the legalization of abortion, the Latino community is evolving, and such perceptions are outdated.

Polls show that a majority of Latinos say abortion should be legal in most or all cases. It’s time for Democrats to make abortion rights a reason for Latinos to turn out and vote in the midterms.

There is no denying that Latinos have a stake in the debate over abortion access. The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion, will disproportionally affect Latinos and undocumented people, human rights groups say.

Although Latinos represent 19% of the US population, they account for 25% of abortion patients, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization on reproductive health that supports abortion rights.

Latinos tend to earn less income than other Americans, according to a study by McKinsey & Co., so many Latinas may now have difficulty accessing reproductive health care. Among the states with abortion bans is Texas, home to the second-largest Latino population in the country.

Meanwhile, surveys show that most Latinos hold progressive views on abortion. According to the Pew Research Center, 60% of Latinos say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. A July Public Religion Research Institute poll found that 75% of Latino Catholics believed that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 72% of Latino Catholics were against overturning Roe v. Wade.

These findings present a chance for Democrats to win back some of the Latino support that they lost in 2020. While more than 60% of Latinos voted for President Joe Biden, Latino support for former President Donald Trump went up compared with 2016, and Republicans were able to make inroads with Latinos in South Texas and Florida.

Since then, the conventional wisdom seems to be that Democrats are bleeding Latino support. While that view remains to be seen, Democrats would be smart to contrast their position on abortion with that of the GOP. How can Republicans call themselves “pro-life” when lack of access to a safe and legal abortion can endanger the lives of Latinas?

Polling also shows that support for legal abortion is higher among second- and third-generation US Latinos.

Given that, on average, 1 million Latinos reach voting age every year, Democrats have the potential to galvanize this demographic. These new voters need to know that their views on abortion access likely align with the Democratic Party. In a state such as Florida, which has a significant Latino population as well as new limits on abortion, this could be critical to Democratic gains.

True, faith and family are important to Latinos, and some Latinos welcomed the Dobbs decision. But for many Latinos, their view on abortion is probably similar to that of Biden, who differentiates between his personal Catholic faith and his political opinion on the issue.

Likewise, potential Latino voters may go to Mass regularly and be opposed to abortion; it doesn’t necessarily mean that they want to limit the rights of others. Democrats should not shy from a message for Latinos centering on this distinction.

How ironic that many Latinos’ ancestors came from countries where women were treated as second-class citizens. Now abortion is legal or accessible in Argentina, Cuba, Colombia, Guyana, Uruguay and parts of Mexico, while US Latinas increasingly face the economic, health and social costs of abortion restrictions.

Like other Americans, many Latinos were disappointed by the Supreme Court ruling taking away the right to an abortion. Democrats must capitalize on the new political landscape – and use this backward decision to move forward with Latino voters.