Republicans have not gotten the memo that the majority of Americans support unfettered reproductive rights and that opposition to abortion is a political loser. Sure there are abortion opponents. What is important is not how many there are; it’s where they are.
Those opposing the right to abortion are in virtually every state but their numbers go up in states the Republicans will win anyway in 2024. In our deeply divided United States, all but a few states are virtually certain to go either Democrat or Republican, “almost for sure,” in Hollywood film-industry parlance. But voter opposition to abortion can be a loser even in those states. Recall the passage by a huge margin of Kansas’ constitutional amendment referendum assuring the right to abortion.
This is set to be repeated in Ohio where a similar constitutional amendment is on the ballot this year with polls confirming a substantial victory.
In acts of self-immolation, every piece of proposed legislation in the House is amended to include abortion-condemnation provisions to comply with right-wing insistence and yielding the approval of Speaker McCarthy who goes along because he wants to keep his job. So too, with provisions opposing gender-affirming medical care, a subject of no importance or relevance to defense authorization legislation.
In fact, all the Republican candidates for nomination to be president (except for Christie) emphasize social issues, starting with opposition to reproductive rights and going down from there.
Gov. DeSantis, having established himself as a vigorous abortion opponent in signing Florida’s six-week abortion ban, is now moving on to other social issues that give off a stench to all but the most rabid MAGA gang members, and even to some of those. This week he said that if elected president he might pick Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., that vaccine conspiracy theorist, to lead the FDA or CDC.
Former VP Mike Pence, a proponent of life from the moment of conception, blasted DeSantis for making this suggestion because Kennedy is pro-abortion and only pro-life Americans could head the FDA, CDC, or HHS, so “Democrats like RFK Jr. would not even make the list.” (As of now, Pence is flunking the Republican primary test.)
To assure a Democratic victory in 2024 it is essential that a pro-abortion ballot measure be proposed in every state where possible. Such a measure will assure a big turnout of Democrats, independents and women in suburbs, a winning combination.
If every ballot measure affirming reproductive rights has been a winner, why are the Republicans on a rampage to destroy a woman’s right to choose? Perhaps the Republicans are acting on principle. But any beliefs that Republicans may hold are expressed in an orgy of foreordained victory in 2024, not as deeply held views that cannot be achieved in most cases.
For Republicans it’s all abortion, all the time. Frankly, I don’t get it.