Republicans plot national abortion ban as Democrats fail to even run on expanding the Supreme Court
This post was originally published on this site
The forced birth movement is thinking big now, having secured the U.S. Supreme Court and set up at least a dozen states to completely ban abortion as soon as the court overturns 50 years of precedence in Roe v. Wade. That’s not nearly enough for them, because it would mean that dozens of other states would still allow the practice and pregnant people would be able to travel to them for the procedure.
No, what they are aiming to do now is ban abortion nationally. The Washington Post reports that the big “antiabortion groups and their allies in Congress have been meeting behind the scenes to plan a national strategy that would kick in if the Supreme Court rolls back abortion rights this summer, including a push for a strict nationwide ban on the procedure if Republicans retake power in Washington.” Because of course it isn’t about states’ rights when it comes to abortion. It’s not about anyone’s rights.
Republican senators are, apparently, ready to go. According to a Post source in the forced birth movement, Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst is going to introduce a national ban on abortion at six weeks in the Senate, though she didn’t confirm that with the paper. Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) was at the meeting in which GOP senators supposedly discussed this, and said he will support it. That’s the beginning. If Republicans regain Congress, it’s what they’ll push and, with the Supreme Court having already done its part and the power behind this movement solidified, GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell would just as likely end the filibuster to make it pass.
Tuesday, May 3, 2022 · 2:13:50 AM +00:00
·
Barbara Morrill
Now more important than ever:
Shocking SCOTUS leak shows abortion rights overturned under draft opinion from Justice Alito
What’s more, according to the Post: Forced birther Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, has been speaking with 10 potential Republican presidential candidates to get them on board. “Most of them, she said in an interview, assured her they would be supportive of a national ban and would be eager to make that policy a centerpiece of a presidential campaign.”
Kelley Robinson, executive director of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, is taking the “terrifying” threat of a national ban seriously. “By them saying out loud that their goal is to push a nationwide abortion ban, it makes it clear that we have to elect more pro-reproductive health champions on the national level and in the states,” she said.
Well, yes. But after the Democratic Party seemed to react to Texas’ six-week ban, the precursor to all of this, with a yawn, of course forced birthers are jacked and of course Republicans will fold to that small, extreme, horrifying base. All the way back in September 2021 the Supreme Court allowed the Texas ban to stand and all but end abortion in that state.
The response from Democrats has been underwhelming. There’s been little more than the usual platitudes from Democratic leadership about protecting the right to choose and absolutely no endorsement, or really even any talk, about the most important thing they could do right now to ensure that right: expand the courts.
Expand the district courts, the circuit courts and especially the Supreme Court to stop the radical right from imposing a right-wing evangelical dominionist hellscape across the land.
And while that’s not possible right now with an evenly divided Senate, run on it and work like hell to get a big enough majority in the Senate to make Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema irrelevant, get rid of the filibuster, and save the country.
At the very least, run on all of this so that the majority of Americans—including the all-important and all-too-often taken for granted base—that Democrats are going to fight like hell to protect us. Don’t tell us you’re going to fight like hell. Do it.
RELATED STORIES: