Republican Politicians and the Abortion Millstone

You’d think, post-Dobbs, that Republican politicians would be crowing. After all, 40 years of gerrymandering and Federalist Society judge picking has finally resulted in Roe v. Wade being fully and completely over turned. “See, here,” they could giddily assert, “We stuck the course and DELIVERED in the face of an increasingly liberal society. We protected BABIES. and we reasserted STATES’ RIGHTS! So vote for us because we win – even when it takes decades!” Of course, they could have been expected to take a victory lap after the ACA was passed too – and voted over 70 times to repeal their own ideas in an attempt to deny Barack Obama a legacy.

And from an anti-abortion stance, they indeed won. 11 states have fully banned abortion, usually with trigger laws that were in place before Dobbs. 15 other states have enacted or are debating significant restrictions of abortion access, usually after 6 weeks. Which means if you have a uterus, and you need abortion services, half of the US is no longer your friend.

But surely, many commenters here have opined, that will be enough. Having caught the car, Republican politicians will now let the states actually decide and leave alone those states whose voters want to allow a more expansive view of abortion services. Afterall, there’s no right to abortion, or medical privacy enshrined in the Constitution (though one would think the prohibition on unlawful search and seizure would carry on this matter), so let states have their say and be done. We don’t need a national standard on this anyway, since people can just go where the abortions are when they want them – nevermind the mindboggling absurdity of making women go across two or three states to get a medical procedure.

And yet, Republican politicians aren’t leaving well enough alone. Not that I expected them to. This week’s amusing and darkly maddening example is none other then South Carolina’s own Trump toady, Senator Lindsey Graham. In what is no doubt an attempt to appeal to Republican voters ahead of the midterms to NOT abandon the GOP, Graham has introduced a national abortion restriction bill in the Senate. While he’s dubbing it a “late term” ban, it’s anything but:

<blockquote>The South Carolina Republican, flanked by female anti-abortion rights activists, said at a press conference the bill would ban abortion after 15 weeks with exceptions for some instances of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is at risk. Graham has previously introduced bills seeking abortion bans from the 20-week mark.

Asked about his previous position that abortion was a states’ rights issue, Graham said the bill was meant as a counter to a Democratic bill aimed at codifying abortion rights that failed to pass the Senate in May.

“After they introduced a bill to define who they are, I thought it would be nice to release a bill defining who we are,” Graham said.

He later added, “I know many who would like to do more, but you know, this is a reasonable position.”

The plan comes less than two months before the midterm elections, which many Democrats will be fighting on an abortion-rights platform.

Axios said Graham’s bill might be an attempt to portray the GOP as “more mainstream on abortion by pushing a partial ban over either a full ban or what they characterize as Democrats’ ‘abortion on-demand’ position.”</blockquote> https://www.thedailybeast.com/lindsey-graham-to-introduce-national-late-term-abortions-ban-to-the-senate

Notice two things here. First, the bill seeks to restrict abortion services nationally, something we keep being assure no one wants to do. And second, it seeks to do so not for some high and mighty principle, but because it’s what he thinks he can get votes to pass, even as he says others want to do more. Equally importantly, he avoids making public statements about the clause in the bill that allows states with more restrictive bans to keep them – thus making one wonder how this becomes a national ban.

Now this bill has zero chance of passing this Congress, much less getting any sort of procedural votes. And so yes, it might be best dismissed as posturing (which Graham also alludes to). Still, Republican politicians keep showing their stripes. One wonders when we will really start believing them.