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marmar

(77,976 posts)
Fri Apr 14, 2023, 08:11 AM Apr 2023

Republicans, facing devastating fallout from "Dobbs effect," refuse to quit abortion bans [View all]


Republicans, facing devastating fallout from "Dobbs effect," refuse to quit abortion bans
They brought this on themselves

By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
Columnist
PUBLISHED APRIL 14, 2023 9:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) If you are following the issue of abortion right now you almost surely have a headache. There is just so much happening all over the country that it's very hard to wrap your head around what's going on and how to fight it. This was the predictable outcome of overruling Roe v. Wade to "send it back to the states" because it was always part of the anti-abortion movement strategy. Instead of fighting on one front at the national level, pro-choice advocates would be forced to fight on many different fronts in many different ways while at the same time battling back one attempt after another in the federal courts to degrade the right in the states where it is legal. The final goal remains a national ban even if they have to get it done incrementally.

This was always obvious by the fact that while they always piously proclaimed that abortion is murder while at the same time insisting that they merely wanted to return the issue to the states, as if it was fine with them if some states decided to keep it legal. What they really wanted to do was disperse the resources and energy and wear down the opposition.

So far, it isn't working.

If anything, they have galvanized the pro-choice majority and it's wreaking havoc on Republican politics. In red states they have managed to enact all the draconian policies they dreamed of post-Roe — and that effort is ongoing. Just last night, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a ban on abortion after six weeks. But he did it in a closed door ceremony and didn't announce it until 11 pm, illustrating how dicey abortion politics have become for politicians with national ambitions.

....(snip)....

First of all, even if the anti-abortion zealots were to agree, the genie is out of the bottle. Roe was overturned and the battle for women's autonomy isn't going to magically disappear because they agree to allow for an exception for rape and incest, which until fairly recently was supported by most pro-lifers. The right to abortion is supported by a large majority of Americans and that majority is growing. Gallup polls from last May show support for abortion in all or most cases at 85%, higher than when polling began in 1975 (76%). With those numbers it's not surprising that a recent PRRI poll found that in only seven states is there a majority against abortion rights: South Dakota (42% say it should be legal), Utah (42%), Arkansas (43%), Oklahoma (45%), Idaho (49%), Mississippi (49%) and Tennessee (49%). Not one state in the country had more than 14% saying it should be illegal in all circumstances. ...............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2023/04/14/republicans-facing-devastating-fallout-from-dobbs-effect-refuse-to-quit-abortion-bans/




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