Are Republicans Only Just Pretending to Fight Over Abortion?

[Nevilledog]

https://jezebel.com/are-republicans-only-just-pretending-to-fight-over-abor-1850370305

Republicans know they have a huge abortion problem on their hands following their successful, decades-long campaign to overturn Roe v. Wade. Angry voters overwhelmingly support abortion rights, but the GOP has hitched its wagon to activist groups who won’t settle for anything less than a nationwide ban. What are politicians to do in that situation, especially as reporters keep asking them about it?

A CNN story published Sunday is a good example of their approach: Just hide the ball. While a Republican-controlled House passed a 20-week abortion ban in 2012, 2015, and 2017, multiple Republicans told CNN they now think abortion is now a state’s rights issue and don’t want to pursue a federal ban at all.

But those are their on-the-record comments. “Behind the scenes,” CNN reporters say, “Republicans acknowledge that the abortion ruling, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, hurt the GOP in the midterm elections and they’re worried about a similar backlash in 2024 if they embrace a federal ban now that they’re in power.”

The CNN piece is the fifth story published in the last two weeks about GOP “infighting” over the prospect a national abortion ban, following similar reporting from the New York Times, the Associated Press, the Washington Post, and Politico. Who will support South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham’s 15-week ban? Why is Donald Trump saying “states’ rights?” Does Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) still have a place in her party while calling them out for being wrong on abortion?

*snip*

[Walleye]

1. It's some kind of groupthink resolution of cognitive dissonance

[Bettie]

2. Or they think they can get enough

votes suppressed and the gerrymandering will hold for them.

[Vogon_Glory]

3. I think it's a real fight

I think it’s a real fight. I think there are blocks of Republicans who’d like access to abortion (at least for themselves) even if they try to cater to the anti-abortion block and that block’s voters. The trouble is that now that the Dobbs decision has gone through, the non-fanatics are having to face an empowered anti-abortion block that is going to force its will on the rest of the Republican Party and won’t take “no” for an answer.

IMO, some of the Republicans who voted for anti-abortion bills before Dobbs but aren’t serious about banning it have realized that they’ve created an electoral crisis: they know that a lot of non-Republicans oppose a ban and are rapidly turning sour on the Republican Party. They know there’s a crisis, but they’re stuck on a high-speed train with tight curves and have lost control of the brakes and throttle.

So, yeah, there’s division. But I don’t sympathize with them one tiny bit.

[ananda]

4. No. It's what their base wants, as small as it is.

They've lost any semblance of reasonable, sane voters.

[Wounded Bear]

5. Actually I think the Old Guard of leadership was doing that...

They've been at the abortion fight for decades without really doing anything legislatively to change Roe v Wade. They wanted to continue to use the issue to get elected and then kind of ignore it.

Now, in the last 10-15 years, the base has been rising up and getting all riled up and they finally screwed up and actually installed some judges who were willing to overturn precedent and go there.

Now they have the tiger by the tail with the base and the radical idiots they have elected going farther and farther down the rabbit hole away from what the majority of Americans wanted, which was to leave this shit alone, Roe was just fine, don't upset shit.

Now we have a mess on the right, a growing coalition on the left working to protect women's health care and rights, and a bunch of crazies out there with guns willing to enforce their ideology with violence.