In a private meeting between Senate Republicans and the leader of a super PAC closely linked to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) last week, senators were fed the results of recent polling that found voters attitudes about “pro-life” language has dramatically shifted since the Supreme Court’s ruling on Dobbs.
Hard pass. It’s not the Democrats job to untangle GOP lies and other disinformation. They should have considered consequences prior to this.
Bring me something that I can work with!
“Republicans are trying to plant their flags in specifics that illustrate they’re still opposed to abortion, but not in all cases.”
For example, they now embrace exceptions in cases where the life of the Republican Party is at risk of being wiped out by the 2024 election.
Oh yeah, and …
“Dems in disarray!”
Where is the NY Times Pitchbot when you need it?
Agreed. But they aren’t trying to compromise with us. They’re hoping to compromize with themselves, but they no longer know how. Let them shred themselves.
If you change the proposal from 15 weeks with exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother to exceptions for rape, incest, and the HEALTH of the mother, you basically have what was happening in practice, the vast majority of the time, post-Roe pre-Dobbs, Republican lies notwithstanding. Democrats should consider getting behind this proposal, with the one key word change, and only under the condition that no state is allowed a more restrictive standard than the Federal standard. Watch Republicans’ heads explode, watch their talking points revealed for the lies they are, and watch a split in the party that will doom them.
Politically, that’s the way to play this.
Senator Hawley: “Many voters think [‘pro-life’] means you’re for no exceptions in favor of abortion ever, ever, and ‘pro-choice’ now can mean any number of things."
Pro-choice means preferring having choices. This is a clear eureka moment for the Senator.
The problem is the “bothsidesnow” media represents both sides of the abortion issue as being extreme, Republicans wanting no exception and Democrats wanting abortion on demand up to birth.
There are several reasons this “equality” is not only wrong but harmful. The first reason this is a false equivalence is because I do not think it is an “extreme” position that women have the right to decide what to do with their own bodies without exception.
The second and most harmful of this false equivalence is that it portrays women as making “ding bat” decisions in regard to terminating a pregnancy after carry it for 7 or more month. That is rather than accurately portraying a decision to have a late term abortion what it is, a gut wrenching decision made only after consultation with doctors determining that something has gone horribly and heartbreaking wrong with a pregnancy, the media makes it seem that women are incapable of making these decisions and therefore the Party of small Government is justified for wanting to put its hands in every women’s womb.
Thirdly, this false equivalence ignores that less than 1% of all abortions are in fact late term abortions. 93%+ and 6%+ of abortions are performed in the first and second trimesters. Equating what the media finds as “extreme” a position that wants to ban 100% of abortions with a position that allows for less than 1% of abortions and than making it seem that the decisions for that 1% are anything but the most difficult and heartbreaking decision a person will likely ever have to make in their lives is why it is so difficult to do the most common sense policies.
So long as the media goes out of its way to cast all sides as “extreme” when clearly that could only be true if women were incapable of making decisions about what to do with their own bodies it will continue to be difficult to do anything of the most basic common sense not only with abortion but gun safety, climate change, income inequality, access to health care and even foreign policy like support for the Ukraine.
Yes. It’s clear either “Pro-choice” or “Pro-no choice”!
Not even sure they are actually compromising with themselves, at least at the heart of the matter. The most they are doing is compromising on the “messaging” since they long ago sold their souls - and risked our nation’s - on the idea that messaging trumps actual policy on any issue.
I don’t trust Republicans. Too many of them have supported total or near total bans. I don’t see them backing away from it as individual states have already fast-tracked inhumane laws with regards to reproductive freedom/rights. How do they get around states rights and all that.
The vast percentage of abortions happen before and up to 13 weeks per the CDC.
From the CDC,
Similar to previous years, in 2020, women in their twenties accounted for more than half of abortions (57.2%). Nearly all abortions in 2020 took place early in gestation: **93.1% of abortions were performed at ≤13 weeks’ gestation; a smaller number of abortions (**5.8%) were performed at 14–20 weeks’ gestation, and even fewer (0.9%) were performed at ≥21 weeks’ gestation. Early medical abortion is defined as the administration of medication(s) to induce an abortion at ≤9 completed weeks’ gestation, consistent with the current Food and Drug Administration labeling for mifepristone (implemented in 2016). In 2020, 51.0% of all abortions were early medical abortions. Use of early medical abortion increased 22% from 2019 to 2020 and 154% from 2011 to 2020. Source: MMWR. 2022;71(10).
Oh this is good, a compromise that leaves everyone pissed!
That is going to be handy in the next election cycle. Welcome to catching the car that you were chasing GOP.
Is much like …
Of course Republicans won’t accept 15 weeks with a mother’s health exception as a national standard. That’s the point. Democrats can capture the middle ground where most of the country is, and show everyone how much Republicans have been lying about what pro-choice means, and how much they are controlled by the Christo-Taliban. If they were to accept the compromise, which they won’t, think of all the pregnant red staters who would benefit, far more than the number of blue staters who would be hurt.
The only problem is, that is not the proposal. We have what we have with the SCOTUS ruling, nothing else. And that is 50 different decisions by state, with many of those decisions extreme anti-abortion.
What the GOP wants is a fig leaf so they don’t get clobbered on the problem they created with voters.
My personal preference is not to give any fig leaf to them, why hand them a present? Have they handed any to Democrats lately, other than, say, making this an election issue?
Just say Pro-Choice.
Previously, when they were talking about a nationwide 15 week limit, the understanding amongst Republicans was that the 15 week ban was for blue states that are currently more lenient, but that red states could tighten or eliminate access to abortions as they wished. Basically sticking it to the blue states. They never act in good faith - ever.
And you can’t negotiate with a dishonest counterpart.
The pig likes it and you just get their stink on yourself. Or something like that.
Good, let them. Dems need to campaign on codifying Roe V. Wade and just say “We trust women to make their own choices and not involve the state in decisions regarding their bodies. We are for reproductive freedom.”
Our ‘let’s-all-get-along’ Senators (Dick Durbin, Tammy Duckworth) need to take this position now—we could have held the House in 22 if they would have shown some back bone. If they’re as pro-choice as they say, they need to act like it. We need to capitalize on republicans’ weakness and confusion.
Quoting it all, for emphasis. The MF’ers are likely to flip it the other way round, so the least restrictive ban is 15 weeks, etc, and the Taliban states can continue with a blanket ban (which is what 6 weeks is, in reality).
No way will the GQP push the deep red states to relax the ban, the evangelical and RC loons won’t let them. This is just desperate distraction tactics to limit the damage that they’ve already done, and to try to confuse the issue by bleating “states’ rights”
The Dems shouldn’t let them get away with it. Like all that “settled law” bullshit.