Have you noticed? That the Republicans don’t want to us the word “abortion” any more, they realize that they f***ed up so now they are trying to rebrand “abortion.”
In the year since Roe v. Wade was overturned, the Republican Party has tested out constantly changing talking points and messages on abortion in an attempt to make its anti-abortion policies sound less extreme. Conservatives are even considering moving away from the term “pro-life,” fearing that voters have newly negative associations with the label.
With post-Roe outrage showing no sign of waning, strategists are pushing a new lexicon on abortion — medically, legally and culturally. Some Republicans have abandoned the term “ban” when speaking about anti-abortion legislation, for example. Now they’re pushing for a 15-week “standard” on abortion — which, to be clear, would be a ban. Americans overwhelmingly oppose strict abortion bans, so Republicans are moving away from the term.
Republicans hope that by changing the way Americans talk about abortion, it might help change the way they feel about abortion — which is, right now, very pro-choice. A record 69 percent of American adults say abortion should generally be legal in the first trimester, and anger over bans has Republicans losing election after election, from ballot measure initiatives in Kansas and Kentucky to the State Supreme Court in Wisconsin.
A skunk is still a skunk by any name! It still stinks to high heaven,
Of course, politicians’ using deceptive talking points isn’t new, but when it comes to an issue like abortion, even just a handful of words can have dire consequences.
Consider the expression “postbirth abortion” — the idea is that abortion involves killing newborns. This is, to be clear, a lie, but that hasn’t stopped candidates like Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis from repeating it.
The phrase “abortion tourism” has also made its way into Republican talking points. This makes it sound as if women traveling to get abortions were taking vacations rather than fleeing their home states for health care, sometimes emptying their bank accounts or staying in shelters in the process.
Ever smell skunk-cabbage in the spring? It stinks!
The
Hill writes,
Republicans are struggling over how to craft their message on abortion, an issue that has repeatedly kneecapped GOP candidates and that is seen as a huge problem next November.
No consistent message has emerged from the GOP presidential field, which has been all over the map with its strategies for winning over voters on the issue.
[...]
“The [National Republican Senatorial Committee] is encouraging Republicans to clearly state their opposition to a national abortion ban and support for reasonable limits on late-term abortions when babies can feel pain with exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother,” said a source familiar with the strategy being employed by the NRSC. “They are encouraging candidates to contrast that position with Democrats’ support for taxpayer-funded abortion without limits.”
Chamberlain is in agreement that candidates should treat abortion as a state issue. “If you’re a Republican, you support giving more power to the states,” she said.
They are trying to spray air freshener to cover the stink, but not all the Republicans in Congress got the message Sen. Graham
introduced one in the Senate and the
House Republicans passed "one resolution to condemn attacks on anti-abortion facilities, including crisis pregnancy centers, and a separate bill that would impose new penalties if a doctor refused to care for an infant born alive after an abortion attempt."
Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., summarized the closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill as being focused on “pro-baby policies.”
NBC News
By Julie Tsirkin, Kate Santaliz, Brennan Leach and Liz Brown-Kaiser
September 7, 2023
Republican strategists are exploring a shift away from “pro-life” messaging on abortion after consistent Election Day losses for the GOP when reproductive rights were on the ballot.
At a closed-door meeting of Senate Republicans this week, the head of a super PAC closely aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., presented poll results that suggested voters are reacting differently to commonly used terms like “pro-life” and “pro-choice” in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, said several senators who were in the room.
The polling, which NBC News has not independently reviewed, was made available to senators Wednesday by former McConnell aide Steven Law and showed that “pro-life” no longer resonated with voters.
I can’t imagine why the Republicans feel that way, just because every time a referendum on abortion comes up it gets soundly defeated by the voters. You know the voters who the Republicans feel that they don’t vote the “correct way” in other words the party line.
“What intrigued me the most about the results was that ‘pro-choice’ and ‘pro-life’ means something different now, that people see being pro-life as being against all abortions ... at all levels,” Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said in an interview Thursday.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said the polling made it clear to him that more specificity is needed in talking about abortion.
Psst, here is a tip for the Republicans, the voters are not dumb. They know it all about a woman’s right to control her own body, they know that you want to take that right away from them. They know.
Time magazine writes…
Within the Republican universe, there are no statistical differences among urban, suburban, and rural voters on abortion. Men and women answer almost identically. While Republicans with a college education are more likely to support abortion rights than those without one, the difference is not significant enough to give those favoring abortion access a plurality let alone a majority. In fact, nowhere in those critical slivers of the electorate registers a winning majority in support of those rights. In other words, at least at this point, the Republican primary universe is not primed to reward those same women who in 2022 told reporters that abortion had soured them on the GOP. Right now, the party’s membership is ready to weigh in on a nominee—and they want someone who promises to fight against restoring abortion rights.
[…]
All of which is to say this: the Republican Party certainly is the party for those who were happy about the end of Roe. But the GOP is by no means monolithic. Trump’s fuzzy position on future abortion restrictions reflects that sentiment. The former President is owning the horse race right now with 54% support, and only DeSantis, the Florida Governor, is hitting double digits with 17%. As the Times’ polling maestro Nate Cohn notes, no candidate who enjoys a 20-point leg up at this point over the last half century has gone on to lose the nomination.
Their evangelical, white nationalist, Christian nationalist crowd is all for abortion bans and that is the Republican dilemma how to keep their base satisfied while pulling the wool over the independent eyes.
In Wisconsin the vote for Supreme Court justice didn't go the way the Republicans wanted... they lost control of the court, the Democrats now have the majority with an important case on gerrymandering coming up.
So the Republicans want to impeach the newly elected justice. With all the push-back the Republicans got cold feet, so they said we will let three retired Supreme Court justices to decide. Well two out of three justices said no to impeachment.
Well the Republicans didn't like that! So...
AP News
By Scott Bauer
October 12, 2023
The Republican leader of Wisconsin’s Assembly refused to back down on Thursday from possibly impeaching a newly elected liberal state Supreme Court justice over her refusal to step aside in a redistricting case, even after two former conservative justices advised him against the unprecedented move.
“No, absolutely not,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said when asked at a news conference if impeachment of Justice Janet Protasiewicz was off the table.
“If they decide to inject their own political bias inside the process and not follow the law, we have the ability to go to the U.S. Supreme Court,” Vos said, “and we also have the ability to hold her accountable to the voters of Wisconsin.”
The Republicans complain is that the Democratic judge received campaign funding from groups opposed to the gerrymandering and on the campaign trail she said she was opposed to the gerrymandering.
Protasiewicz last week rejected those arguments, noting that other justices have accepted campaign cash and not recused from cases. She also noted that she never promised or pledged to rule on the redistricting lawsuit in any way. A state judiciary disciplinary panel has rejected several complaints against Protasiewicz that alleged she violated the judicial code of ethics with comments she made during the campaign.
[...]
Other justices, both conservative and liberal, have spoken out in the past on issues that could come before the court, although not always during their run for office like Protasiewicz did. Current justices have also accepted campaign cash from political parties and others with an interest in court cases and haven’t recused themselves. But none of them has faced threats of impeachment.
But that is different! These are Democrats, and the Republicans would never, never, vote the party line. Right, you can't trust these Democrats to do the right thing... vote the way the Republicans party wants.
