The GOP is in a hole and it’s welcome to keep digging
While the GOP has already suffered defeat after defeat in special elections since the Dobbs ruling nearly two years ago, their situation has only gotten much worse. The GOP had the option of ‘evolving’ to a pro-choice stance, but this would only weaken them with the evangelical voters that they need to win elections – since many people come to the polls for this issue alone. However, their “pro-life” stance is now hurting them with moderates horrified by the abortion bans being enacted in red state after red state – and a recent state supreme court ruling in Alabama has only made things worse – interpreting the Dobbs decision to mean that embryos in fertility clinics are legally people and the practice – which a number of conservative women rely on – could be ruled unconstitutional under the rogue SCOTUS we have right now.
Republicans are pretending to be upset by this because even the worst of them realize the implications it will have for their own voters, even though they have no plans to do anything beyond complain and make false promises that they can somehow keep IVF clinics open without overturning Dobbs.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, however, had the clearest messaging against this fake outrage we’re seeing, when she appeared on CNN on Sunday: “I think the government should get out of people’s individual personal health care decisions. I think the government has no business or expertise inserting themselves in the middle of a woman and her right to make the choice that is right for her or a family that desperately wants to have a child. ” The GOP has always loved to argue that they’re for “small government” but they’re never exactly clear on what it is – and all of their policies pretty much do the exact opposite. The Democrats’ messaging going in should be to keep the government out of other people’s business – and this is clearly a culture war we can fight the GOP on and win. Let’s vote Republicans out on Nov 5.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making