#Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organzation

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck at CNN:

Former President Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, said two-and-a-half years ago he was open to a national abortion ban, a stark contrast to comments he made this week where the Ohio senator said he adhered to Trump’s view that abortion should be a state issue. Vance argued in 2022 that people seeking abortions would travel from states where abortion is banned to states with liberal abortion laws, necessitating federal action. “I certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally,” Vance said in January 2022 on a podcast when running for Senate.

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Since the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision overturned the constitutional right to abortion, voters have consistently supported abortion rights in state measures, and the 2022 midterm elections saw numerous anti-abortion Republicans defeated.

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Vance once supported a “national minimum standard” for abortion restrictions and signaled support for a 15-week federal abortion ban to CNN before determining there was no appetite for it in the current climate.

Yet in January 2022, Vance argued that while lawmakers couldn’t ban abortion in the current climate, he was sympathetic to the view that a national ban was necessary. Vance proposed a hypothetical scenario where if Roe vs. Wade was overturned and Ohio banned abortion by 2024, liberal mega donor and philanthropist George Soros — a popular bogeyman in conservative circles might then facilitate abortions for “disproportionately black women” by flying them to California. “I’m sympathetic to the view that like, okay, look here, here’s a situation — let’s say Roe vs. Wade is overruled. Ohio bans abortion, in 2022 or let’s say 2024. And then, you know, every day George Soros sends a 747 to Columbus to load up disproportionately black women to get them to go have abortions in California. And of course, the left will celebrate this as a victory for diversity — uh, that’s kind of creepy.” “And, and it’s like, if that happens, do you need some federal response to prevent it from happening?” Vance said, “I’m pretty sympathetic to that actually. So, you know, how hopefully we get to a point where Ohio bans abortion in California and the Soroses of the world respect it.”

CNN’s KFile exposes Trump VP pick and Senator J.D. Vance’s January 2022 call to ban abortion nationwide during an appearance on the Very Fine People podcast on the hypothetical basis that George Soros would fly abortion patients to California or other abortion-permissive states.

The podcast was released several months before the Dobbs decision was handed down that overturned Roe and Casey at SCOTUS.

See Also:

HuffPost: JD Vance Previously Advocated For 'Abortion To Be Illegal Nationally'

MMFA: RNC coverage has at times whitewashed J.D. Vance’s anti-abortion extremism

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Noah Berlatsky at Public Notice:

Donald Trump gave the Democratic Party a gift during his Fox News town hall last week. In response to a question from a conservative pro-life voter, he boasted about gutting abortion rights. “For 54 years they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated,” he said earnestly. “And I did it. And I’m proud to have done it.” Trump spent recent days in his usual rage spiral, boosting birther lies about Nikki Haley and insisting that presidents have immunity from prosecution even if they order hits on their political foes. But his response to the abortion question at the town hall was oddly normal. A voter asked for policy clarification, and Trump provided it. That’s how campaigns, and democracy, are supposed to work. Trump is a force for chaos — but he’s also, still, in many ways, accountable to the GOP in fairly standard ways. Abortion politics make that clear. But they also show how Trump’s authoritarianism is continuous with, rather than a break from, a Republican Party that has embraced antidemocratic means to enact minoritarian policy ends. [...]

Trump’s clear statement on abortion at the town hall was notable because he’s been trying to obfuscate the issue. During a Meet the Press interview in September, Trump refused to commit to a 15-week national abortion ban. He also attacked six-week abortion bans such as those passed in Florida by Ron DeSantis. “I think what [DeSantis] did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake,” Trump said. Trump’s been unusually forthright about his reasons for hedging on abortion. He blames the backlash to Dobbs for Republicans’ underwhelming performance in the 2022 midterms. At an Iowa campaign rally in September, Trump said that if you support hard line abortion policies, “it is very difficult to win elections.” He added, “This issue cost us dearly in the midterms, and unnecessarily.” Trump’s not wrong. Most analysts agree that Dobbs has hurt Republicans badly, especially with young people and suburban women. A Pew poll taken shortly after the decision found that 57 percent of voters disapproved of Dobbs while only 41 percent approved. Since Roe was repealed, the GOP has repeatedly lost abortion referendums even in deep red states like Kansas, Montana, and Ohio.

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Anti-abortion politics require authoritarianism

To some degree, it looks like, on abortion at least, the GOP is a functional democratic party. But that’s deceptive. In fact, Republican abortion politics ultimately require minoritarian rule imposed through undemocratic means.

Again, Dobbs, and anti-abortion policies in general, are very unpopular. That means that to impose these policies, Republicans have had to trample democratic norms in big ways and small. The christofascist supermajority on the court was created in the first place by McConnell’s unprecedented refusal to give Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland a hearing in 2016 after the death of Antonin Scalia. Then Trump won the electoral college despite losing the popular vote by a significant margin, and so was able to replace Scalia with conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch. The Dobbs majority was only possible because of the flouting of democratic norms and exploiting of aspects of the US system that deliver wins to popular vote minorities. More, the enforcement of abortion bans requires sweeping attacks on rights and liberty. Counties in Texas have started to issue travel bans, legally penalizing people who help women travel out of state for an abortion. This effectively prevents freedom of movement, turning states into prisons for pregnant people.

No matter how much Donald Trump tries to claim he is a "moderate" on abortion, he can't escape the stench of the Dobbs ruling because he put three of the five SCOTUS justices who overturned Roe on the court.