The day after Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law an all-out ban on abortion in her state with no exceptions for rape or incest, the New York Times informed us that GOP messaging on abortion had put "Democrats on the Defensive." The Times story trumpeted a bunch of Republican talking points about “birth day abortions” and Democrats being “the party of death," imparting that the GOP's "unusually forceful” rhetoric had set Democrats on their heels in state houses across the country.
First and foremost, the story failed to identify the GOP "claims" as the blatant lies they are. It’s timing was also bizarre given the fact that nationally Republicans had spent the previous 24 hours dodging cameras and reporters alike so they wouldn't have to comment on a bill so extreme, even the culture-war party couldn't conjure up a defense of it.
Despite its failings, the article also highlighted just how much headway Republicans have made in state houses across the country by advancing insane conspiracy theories about abortion and Democrats. In that vein, several abortion rights advocates and Democratic pollsters relayed their concerns that the grisly fantasies spun by Donald Trump and Republicans are beginning to reach beyond the conservative base and into other segments of the population.
Surveys conducted for progressive groups in recent weeks found that more than half of Americans were aware of the “infanticide” claims that President Trump and his party have started making when describing abortions that occur later in pregnancy.
Naturally, sicko Trump relishes in trafficking in these make-believe stories about babies being “ripped from the mother’s womb moments from birth.” And as with so many political issues these days, Democrats appear to have suffered from a failure of imagination when it comes to the ability of such wicked lies to penetrate the psyche of certain segments of the population.
Well, it’s time for Democrats to turn the page because, with the passage of Alabama’s abortion ban, Republicans aligned themselves with the most radical 18% of anti-abortion activists in the country who believe abortion should be illegal in all cases. The other 79% of the country believes abortion should be legal in all or some cases—numbers that have been pretty consistent for decades.
While Democratic lawmakers at the state level may not be able to turn the tide in deep red states, national Democrats now have a golden opportunity to come out strong and forcefully in favor of womens' basic health care needs and their right to self-determination.
First off, whatever political advantage Republicans have gained through this bogus ‘infanticide’ claim is based on sheer lies. Babies are not being ‘ripped from the womb,’ and Democrats should be calling that out for what it is: a sick fabrication born of demented minds. The termination of any late-stage pregnancy is inevitably the result of a heart-wrenching situation involving the life of the mother or some other tragic medical complication. As Dr. Leana Wen, president of Planned Parenthood, explained, “These are families that have assembled a crib, picked out little clothes and put them into little drawers and had baby showers when they’ve received the most devastating news of their lives."
Second, the Alabama bill brought into relief just exactly how radical the Republican agenda is: they truly want to overturn Roe v. Wade, entirely outlawing and even criminalizing abortions in this country. Abortion rights advocates have been screaming about this for decades even as they were dismissed as hysterical, as activist Rebecca Traister noted in a must-read piece. But America, and especially America's women, are finally in a place to take that threat to heart following the succession of one unthinkable event after another. From the election of a serial sexual assaulter to the confirmation of another sexual assaulter and fifth anti-Roe vote to the Supreme Court, the worst-case scenario of womens' rights potentially being set back at least half a century is upon us.
The good news is, most 2020 Democrats seem to get it. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Cory Booker along with Beto O'Rourke immediately began making forceful arguments in defense of abortion in a way we haven't seen in decades. In 2016, Hillary Clinton leaned into abortion more so than any previous Democratic nominee had, but she wasn't exactly playing offense. But following the Alabama ban, Booker penned an open letter to men in GQ regarding abortion, Warren laid out an entire platform to protect abortion rights, and Gillibrand went down to Georgia specifically to campaign on the issue. This is a sea change for Democrats, and not a moment too soon.
At the same time, Republicans were literally running away from cameras and dodging questions. The entire House GOP leadership team slipped out the back of a press conference Wednesday to evade reporter questions on the Alabama law. Republican Senators up for reelection in 2020 peddled excuses to avoid the spotlight. Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner brushed off reporters saying he was late getting somewhere. Arizona Sen. Martha McSally called it a "state issue" and said she was focused on her work in Washington. Even Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby said all he knew about the law was what he had read. "I'm not down there," Shelby offered.
Wow. Does that sound like Democrats have been backed into a corner by GOP messaging? Nope. It sounds like red-state GOP lawmakers live in such an insular bubble that they've backed their own party into a corner at the national level. This is political dynamite for them. Democrats should be talking about Alabama’s extreme abortion law along with dozens of others at every campaign stop they make. Republicans finally pushed their radical agenda through to the losing side of the culture wars that they gleefully waged for political gain for decades.