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Women's abortion rights
It’s a little late now, but Republicans are starting to think it might have been a mistake to destroy the Constitutional rights protecting the freedom of American women to make their own decisions about abortion in their lives.
Who knew it would be so politically unpopular for rightwing politicians to ban abortion in their states to force women including children who were raped to carry every pregnancy for nine months and give birth without access to safe, legal alternatives? None of the guys they knew cared.
It took a half century and three Republican presidents, two Bushes and a Trump, to appoint a radical, rightwing Supreme Court extreme enough to destroy women’s Constitutional rights to make their own decisions about their bodies, families, careers and lives just like men do.
The Trump court suddenly abolished religious freedom in America guaranteed by the Constitution. A Republican version of the Taliban was free to impose their extreme religious beliefs on any state and prosecute anyone holding different religious beliefs.
Election Backlash
The overwhelming election backlash against Republicans over abortion was instantaneous. Record voter turnout driven by pro-choice voters in both Democratic and Republican states created major setbacks for Republicans throughout 2022 and 2023. The issue will be on the ballot in more states in 2024. So far, nine states including solidly Republican states like Kansas, Kentucky, Montana and Ohio have added protections for abortion to their state constitutions.
Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch’s dream candidate for the Republican nomination, saw his imaginary presidency disappear before his eyes when Democrats defeated his attempt to pass an abortion ban by winning both legislative chambers.
Strategists for House and Senate elections have been meeting to create a new political message for anti-abortion Republicans. Their current attack on Democrats isn’t working. That’s because it’s an absurd lie to claim Democrats are extremists who support abortion up until the moment of birth.
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Infanticide is homicide. It’s against the law in every state. Besides, it would be ridiculous for a woman to carry a child for nine months and then decide at the last minute that she’d rather have an abortion. The heart-breaking truth is late abortions are the result of tragic, life-threatening medical emergencies.
Overwhelming Rejection
Republicans don’t need a new political message on abortion to win elections. They need a new political position on abortion because abolishing abortion is overwhelmingly rejected by American voters.
Political polling has repeatedly shown support for legalized abortion by more than two-thirds of Americans. That was the exact response in Wisconsin in July to the Marquette University Law School Poll. Sixty-six percent said abortion should be legal in all or most cases and only 31% said it should be illegal in all or most cases.
Voter opposition to abortion and corrupt Republican gerrymandering by the legislature are what finally ended 15 years of rightwing political control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court in April. Justice Janet Protasiewicz was the third progressive justice to win election creating a new court majority now reconsidering an archaic 1849 law that has shut down abortions and fairly drawn voting districts for Congress and the legislature to more accurately reflect our closely divided state.
The widespread unpopularity of outlawing abortion rights will be a serious problem for Republicans in 2024. There is not a single Republican candidate for the presidency or for the House and Senate on the right side of what will be one of the most serious election issues for women and for men who care about the women in their lives.
The Republican presidential race really isn’t much of one. The criminally indicted ex-president who appointed half of the Supreme Court justices who abolished abortion rights is far ahead of the anti-abortion woman in second place.
The Washington media have falsely suggested Nikki Haley is more moderate on abortion than other Republicans. She isn’t. But she claims to “respect” abortion supporters, whatever that means. “I don’t judge anyone for being pro-choice any more than I want you to judge me for being pro-life,” she says.
That’s meaningless political double talk. It makes no difference what anti-abortion Republicans’ feelings are toward women seeking an abortion. All that matters is the drastic laws they support. Haley told evangelical Christians in Iowa she would sign a national abortion ban after six weeks if Republicans could pass it.
That still makes Haley a political moderate compared to Trump. If Republicans succeed in returning Trump to the presidency, he will streamline government the way he tried to at the end of his first term. No more namby-pamby checks and balances from Congress and the courts.
Here's a better option for the rest of us. Reelect President Biden and continue restoring American democracy and writing all the Constitutional rights we used to have into our laws again.
