Faux Federalists: Republicans Expose Their Hypocrisy on Abortion

[Celerity]

It’s become clear that the anti-abortion movement won’t sit idly by while states enact the abortion policies their residents want

https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/07/republicans-expose-their-hypocrisy-on-abortion/670562/

https://archive.ph/qHBlB#selection-515.0-515.46



The anti-abortion movement spent decades citing state’s rights as an argument for overturning Roe. That façade fell away within weeks. For years, anti-abortion advocates have insisted that their cause was a federalist one—an effort to return decision-making power to the states. This was not just a legal argument but a political one. “Wouldn’t it be better if such a divisive issue were decided locally?” the advocates argued, pointing to the significant state-to-state variation in support for abortion.

These talking points persisted, briefly, in the direct aftermath of Roe v. Wade’s overturning. The day that the Dobbs v. Jackson decision was announced, Florida Senator Rick Scott—the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the group tasked with winning Senate seats for Republicans—lauded the Supreme Court for defending “the foundational principle of federalism.” The Michigan Senate majority leader praised the decision as affirming “the importance of federalism and states’ rights.” Other senators and state elected officials also parroted this line. But in the few short weeks since then, it’s become clear that the anti-abortion movement won’t sit idly by while states enact the abortion policies their residents want.

Instead, anti-abortion advocates are now focused on enacting federal restrictions on the procedure. Senate Republicans are already discussing a potential national ban on abortion after just six weeks. After the Dobbs decision leaked, indicating that the Court was poised to strike down Roe, The Washington Post reported that the president of a prominent anti-abortion group has been in conversations with 10 potential Republican presidential candidates (including Donald Trump) in which most “assured her they would be supportive of a national ban and would be eager to make that policy a centerpiece of a presidential campaign.”

Right now, state and national Republicans are casting aside “states’ rights” as they seek to outlaw out-of-state abortions for people who live in places where they’re restricted. In a move reminiscent of Texas Senate Bill 8, Missouri Republicans have proposed that private citizens should be allowed to sue anyone who helps another person get an out-of-state abortion. One conservative legal organization, the Thomas More Society, is encouraging other states to adopt similar legislation. And last week in D.C., Senate Republicans blocked the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act of 2022, which would have made it illegal to “restrict or in [any] way sanction … any individual from traveling to another State to receive or provide reproductive health care that is legal in that State.”

snip

[LuvLoogie]

1. Can we stop calling it the anti-abortion movement and

refer to it as a pro-misogyny movement. After all, their chaining of women within civil society has their denial of body autonomy as one facet. They shield the whole of their bigotry--racial, sexual, economic--with kevlarized fetal tissue.

The Moral Supremacists are perverse. Do not use their apologist language.

Please.

[Celerity]

2. Forced Birth Movement

[bahboo]

3. in other words...they're full of shit....