And in the middle of the celebrationsI break downBoy, you're gonna carry that weightCarry that weight a long timeBoy, you're gonna carry that weightCarry that weight a long time.
Paul McCartney and John Lennon, 1969, Abbey Road
The abortion issue just got worse for Republicans. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk just ruled.
Yesterday this blog described a dilemma for Republican candidates in close general election races.
 |
| Amarillo, Texas |
GOP abortion activists are running up the score. Donald Trump had promised Republicans he would make them winners. One of the issues was to reverse Roe v. Wade and to curtail abortion. I watched Trump at a rally in Boca Raton, Florida in March, 2016. He predicted resounding victory. I wrote:
He ended his talk assuring people that "You will start to win if I am elected. Win. Win. Win. You will win so much you will start to tire of it. But we will keep winning. You will call out to me, 'let's stop winning so much, we are tired of winning,' but I won't stop. I will keep us winning and winning."
He was right, and indeed more right than I understood at the time. The Trump movement is winning so much it hurts Republicans.
It happened again yesterday with the win in the form of Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk's ruling. Trump became president and appointed a very conservative, anti-abortion-activist judge in a judicial district with a single judge. That created an ideal spot for anti-abortion and other conservative litigants to file lawsuits. Kacsmaryk suspended the FDA's approval of the abortion drug mifepristone. The ban applies nationwide. That is winning.
Many Republican voters are celebrating. There is another group of Republican activists, commentators, and politicians who recognize the problem, and are thinking "let's stop winning so much." The ruling shuts down the cheapest, least-intrusive method for very early abortions. Those have the greatest popular support. The political center on this issue is for abortion to be early, safe, inexpensive, least intrusive for the woman, and invisible to the public. That is the abortion pill.
This issue will fester. In the reality of litigation and injunctions, nothing happens quickly. Kacsmaryk put a seven-day stay on his ruling. A contrary ruling was promptly filed in the State of Washington. The FDA will respond and may make the decision moot, which will create new litigation. Kacsmaryk's decision will likely creep up toward the Supreme Court, a hot potato they may send back to lower courts. There is potential that the conservative majority on the Supreme Court will make a sweeping decision to confirm Kacsmaryk's decision. The potential will heighten attention to the confirmation of three anti-abortion judges, who immediately overturned Roe v. Wade. This comes amid controversy over Judge Clarence Thomas' wife's effort to overturn the 2020 election, and now revelation of the expensive gifts he received from a billionaire activist with cases that came before his court.
The Texas ruling poured gasoline onto a fire. We have top-of-mind issue for multiple constituencies: Democrats, women, reproductive rights activists, and young-adult voters generally. The GOP looks immoderate. The new Supreme Court nominees said they would respect precedent. They didn't. This was touted as state-by-state local-control issue. That would have allowed women a safety valve of out-of-state travel. Now there may no safety valve. Red state legislatures keep pushing the rules, not exempting rape and incest, forcing women to be near death before allowing abortions, restricting travel, and creating criminal penalties for physicians, family, and friends.
Readers of this blog skew old. Perhaps they can remember their young adulthood as they negotiated relationships, careers, families, finances and fertility. Americans had become accustomed to having control of their reproductive choices. Republicans aren't tiptoeing in this minefield. When they get the power to act, they are running up the score. It is frightening to a majority of American voters.
Abortion bans are a giant weight on Republican candidates who want to look like reasonable moderates. They are part of a team that has no limits. Their problem just got worse.
[Note: to subscribe to the blog and get it delivered by email every day, go to:petersage.substack.com Subscribe. The blog is free and always will be.]
6 comments:
Republicans will do whatever it takes to protect a microscopic fertilized egg, turning girls and women and their family, friends and doctors into criminals, but they have no concern when children are gunned down at school. THIS IS BEYOND INSANE.
There's a sort of twisted irony to this whole mess.
Trump panders to religious fanatics, as do the rest of the party, but he installs their judges, not to further the agenda, but as a "get out of jail free card" for his personal insurance (Big Lie, the Supreme Court will likely toss the Manhattan case, for instance). The judges lie at confirmation, and the rest of the party goes along with it, they have no choice. Some of them "get religion" after the election and toss the election fraud cases, so that didn't work (it might have...Wisconsin came close), but SCOTUS is toast.
As we all know they had, and have never had, any intention to go anywhere near Roe.
Book banning is a key part of the Republicans’ cancel culture, and it’s no coincidence that one of their favorite targets is The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. What’s really weird is they call themselves “pro-life,” but once the fetus is out of the womb, they seem to consider it open season.
Plus, let’s not forget Tennessee displacing two black legislators and almost one woman from the state legislature. Republicans have a bad look all around. With Trump leading the charge in bad looks, I wonder if any red states will stop being red states. In the state of Washington the Republicans are going full MAGA with election denial, praying for Donald Trump after his wrongful indictments. In the mean time Washington is going more Democrat controlled. Republicans see the train crash coming but by golly they are going to stay on the railroad track as a matter of principle.
“Another such victory over the Romans, and we are undone.”
Pyrrhus
To that first comment by Anonymous.
Seems everybody but the Republicans are advocating free availability to the most expensive birth control ever, an abortion.
With all the other world problems we face these days, there's an enormous amount of effort advocating for this type of birth control.
Even Republicans are wasting their time and effort fighting this.
Post a Comment