Another position on abortion
Donald Trump now says he wants to leave abortion up to the states. People, would you say this is:
A. His third position on abortion
B. His fifth position on abortion
C. Somewhere from fifth to 47th?
Yeah, definitely in the whole-bunch arena. Back in the day, he thought it was a woman’s right. “I’m very pro-choice,” he said in 1999. He wouldn’t even denounce those late-term “partial birth” abortions that people were yelling about at the time. “I hate the concept of abortion,” he said, “but still, I just believe in choice.”
He did, like almost all the folks he’d hung out with in his New York celebrity-keen pre-politics life. But once he started running for president, Trump seemed to notice that people at right-wing political gatherings put ending abortion very, very high on their priority lists.
Suddenly he was a believer; he bragged that his Supreme Court nominations were going to turn the law around. And gee whiz, they did.
Thanks to Trump, there’s no national protection of a woman’s right to choose. The states have started to do their own things, and as abortion access dwindled, Trump discovered that—new surprise!—Republicans were losing elections over the issue. It’s arguably one of the top reasons the House of Representatives, which was supposed to get a big influx of Republicans in 2022, wound up split almost down the middle. Trump’s party now has a majority thinning faster than his hair.
He was reportedly considering a national abortion ban as recently as February and hasn’t ruled out signing one. What else could he do now? How about … try to push the whole issue onto the state legislatures?
Think about this. Maybe, like many Trump Republicans, you believe that human life has to be protected from the moment of conception. Maybe, like many other Americans, you believe a decision about continuing or ending pregnancy should be a woman’s private issue.
Or maybe you believe it should all boil down to the state representative from East Kumquat, who chairs one particular subcommittee.
Not that one? Tell it to Donald. I’m sure he’s open to a mind change.