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Republicans are getting what they asked for on abortion, and regretting it [1]

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Date: 2022-08-30

By the way, In most of the personhood proposed laws put forward so far, a fertilized egg is considered a person. Never mind he’s been advocating for that, Masters is trying to change the subject now to his support for 15-week ban. And all the weeks leading up to it, too, is the part he is trying to keep quiet. It’s all the Democrats’ fault, his website says, because they “lie about my views on abortion.”

The website scrubbing has become a bit of a fad for these guys. North Carolina House candidate Christian Castelli wiped the issue from his site after he won his primary. In Minnesota, Tyler Kistner has left it entirely off his site. But the first time he challenged Democratic Rep. Angie Craig in 2020, he prominently declared his “100% Pro-Life” credentials.

That’s one of the tactics we’re seeing from Republicans—they allege that Democrats are lying and also they’re the extreme ones for insisting that people should have a say over what happens to their bodies. Masters has tried that one on Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, the incumbent. Because, sure, it’s perfectly balanced to say a fertilized egg has the same rights as the living, breathing realized human body hosting it.

Republicans are also trying to pretend as though nothing has really changed, that federal protections being gone really doesn’t make a difference and state after state criminalizing and banning the procedure isn’t a profound attack on the basic human rights of half the country’s population. Instead, they’re acting as though the abortion debate is the same as it’s ever been and that they can still talk about “partial birth” and “fetal hearbeat” and “15 weeks” and that the next thing the forced birther movement—which they’ve joined and exploited and made promises to—isn’t going to do is demand a federal law completely banning abortion in every state.

And blue-state Republicans—who won their primaries on their forced birther positions—are furiously backtracking. Like Tiffany Smiley, who is running against Sen. Patty Murray in Washington. She said on a podcast (as captured in this Murray ad) that she’s “100% pro-life.” Smiley has her own ads out now, in which she insists that “I’m pro-life, but I oppose a federal abortion ban.” Right. In another she says “As an OB-GYN triage nurse, I have seen the heartbreak and the tears.” Get that? She’s empathetic. “It is past time that we stop treating pregnancy like a disease that prevents women from getting a job or a raise,” she says. Okay. She’s going to reform business and society so pregnant people are discriminated against in the workplace? Sure.

Mark Ronchetti, a former TV meteorologist who is running against Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in New Mexico, is trying the same thing. “I’m personally pro-life, but I believe we can all come together on a policy that reflects our shared values,” Ronchetti said in an ad that’s been running in the state. He’s tried to paint Lujan Grisham as “extreme” on abortion, saying “We can end late-term abortion, while protecting access to contraception and health care.”

These two are running in states where abortion is going to remain legal and they know they can’t say they’ll stop it. At least not yet.

Abortion rights, climate change, and gun safety are all on the ballot this fall. Click to start writing Postcards to Democratic-leaning voters in targeted House districts today.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/8/30/2119796/-Republicans-bobbing-and-weaving-and-lying-about-abortion

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