Watching Donald Trump periodically twist himself into a pretzel to reach a politically safe position on abortion rights would be comical if the issue weren't so grave to the lives of countless women.
In any case, his political maneuvers are doomed to failure; Trump cannot make this landing. After all, he is the former president whose three Supreme Court appointments made the decidedly unpopular The Dobbs ruling, which two years ago struck down what had been a constitutional right for women for half a century, has allowed Democrats to reap electoral benefits ever since, and this year appears to be no different.
But Trump thought he had taken the right stance in April, when he posted a… 4½ minute video In which he stated that abortion policy is now up to each individual state. Months later, he still repeats that phrase by heart like a mantra, as if what a future president thinks doesn't matter. Next question. (So much for the topic of abortion.) “Only I can fix it.”)
Opinion columnist
Jackie Calmes
Jackie Calmes brings a critical eye to the national political scene. She has decades of experience covering the White House and Congress.
“The federal government should have nothing to do with this problem and it is being resolved at the state level. And people are very happy about that,” he said. said a CBS News reporter last month.
Except “that” it's not being resolved, and the people They are not happy.
That inconvenient truth could do as much as anything else to prevent Trump from winning another term in the White House. His change of position only makes his situation worse: He has angered his anti-abortion base, as well as abortion-rights supporters, with his efforts to brush off the issue. The latter are eager to vote against him; the former might become demoralized enough to stay home. Trump is “suppressing his own support,” as one evangelical leader put it. saying.
Trump's simplistic line on states' rights doesn't cut it when asked about the latest total or near-total ban in a Republican-run state, the latest anti-abortion ruling by a Trump-appointed federal judge, or the latest Horror story about a pregnant woman who nearly died after being denied a necessary abortion.
Trump’s mantra is meaningless when not only state courts but also federal courts are being asked to rule on legal questions arising from the Dobbs case. In June, the Supreme Court unanimously overturned rulings by a Trump district judge in Texas and a conservative appeals court targeting the abortion drug mifepristone. But the justices ruled on a technicality, and Republican officials in three red states are pursuing another challenge to the drug now used in nearly two-thirds of abortions.
And Trump’s stance that “it’s up to the states” doesn’t satisfy his former anti-abortion allies, who are now demanding a federal ban. They are furious that Democratic states are strengthening their abortion rights, including protections for doctors and others who help women from other states get abortions, and they know that women in states with bans are receiving abortion-inducing drugs by mail.
Trump can't avoid the abortion issue. is A federal matter. Still, he tries, making a fool of himself.
He keeps bragging about how he overturned Roe with his Supreme Court nominees, but two weeks ago reclaimed that a second Trump administration would be “great for women and their reproductive rights.” As president in 2018, praised House Republicans voted to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, and months ago mused about backing a national ban after 15 weeks or Maybe 16 weeksBut now he wants us to believe that he would never sign such a bill. He insists that Republicans support IVF treatments; last week he even proposed that the government or insurers should foot the bill, but some Trump-loving states now have “personhood” laws that give embryos legal status, jeopardizing IVF practices. Democrats are the extreme party, He liesbecause they even support “execution after birth.”
And last week, after months of hedging, Trump said he would vote for a ballot measure in his home state of Florida that would restore abortion rights — but the next day, following a backlash from conservatives, he reversed course and opposed it. If the measure fails, Florida would retain a near-total ban on abortion after six weeks of gestation, when some women don’t even know they’re pregnant. As recently as last spring, Trump had said the Florida law would be a no-go law for pregnant women. “A terrible mistake” for being too extreme and politically risky.
Not in vain, NBC News published a article Earlier this year, it was titled “A Timeline of Trump’s Many, Many Positions on Abortion.” It went from his 1999 claim to be “very pro-choice,” through his “I’m pro-life” declaration at a conservative conference in 2011 and his 2016 speech. containmentquickly rescinded, that “there has to be some kind of punishment” for women who have abortions, and all the way through to its current twists.
In April, he said twice Time magazine said it would propose in two weeks how to regulate mifepristone; that policy document must get lost with the anti-Obamacare health insurance alternative it has promised “in two weeks” for years. In May, said A Pittsburgh television interviewer said he would announce restrictions on contraceptives “very soon”; very soon stepped back.
Like Kamala Harris saysTrump is an unserious man, but his election would have extremely serious consequences. He is the epitome of male politicians who oppose abortion rights for political reasons alone, without thinking about the real ramifications for women. He was a proudly promiscuous peacock for decades, luring women with another p-word, and if Stormy Daniels is to be believed (I am) he I wouldn't use it A condom. The responsibility lies solely with women.
Well, the responsible thing for women to do now, along with the men who support them, is to prevent Trump from ever being described as that other word that starts with p: president.
@jackiekcalmes
