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Washington Post ignores anti-abortion candidate's record [1]

['Daily Kos Staff']

Date: 2023-06-13

The Washington Post has learned absolutely nothing from the way it packaged then-candidate Glenn Youngkin as a cuddly moderate Republican in his gubernatorial run (he wears fleece, people!), only to have him govern as a typical Republican with attacks on trans kids and an anti-critical race theory tipline. The Post continues giving Youngkin the benefit of the doubt at every turn, and now it’s come out with a ludicrous and dangerous puff piece on a Republican state senator trying to pass abortion restrictions. State Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant is running as a kinder, gentler Republican when it comes to abortion, and the Post is happy to help her make that case.

Dunnavant, who is a practicing OB/GYN, wants to pass a 15-week abortion ban with limited exceptions after 15 weeks. That may not be as harsh as what Republicans in Alabama, Texas, or Missouri have passed, but it’s a serious restriction to propose in a state where abortion is currently legal through the first two trimesters of pregnancy, and thereafter if three doctors will certify that continuing pregnancy is “likely to result in the death of the woman or substantially and irremediably impair the mental or physical health of the woman.” By contrast, Dunnavant’s proposed 15-week ban allows exceptions for the life of the mother, severe fetal anomalies, and rape or incest—but not the health of the mother. Congratulations, ladies, your lives are worth an exception, according to Siobhan Dunnavant, but your health is not.

Blue Virginia notes that Dunnavant had a 17% rating from Repro Rising Virginia in 2022, but that’s just another piece of information that doesn’t make it into a piece that admits that Dunnavant’s 15-week ban is “significantly more restrictive than current Virginia law” but characterizes it as “def[ying] easy comparisons to the anti-abortion legislation that her fellow Republicans have recently proposed in the state—more permissive in some aspects, less so in others.” Translation: Dunnavant is sophisticated enough to snow the Post’s reporters on what her bill would mean.

You have to read all the way to the second-to-last paragraph to get any whiff of what Virginia voters think about the issue. One April poll found 75% of voters saying they wanted the state’s abortion laws to stay the same or be less strict, and just 17% saying they wanted the laws to be more strict—although the same poll found a slight edge for a 15-week abortion ban with slightly different exceptions than Dunnavant has proposed. That’s as far as the Post goes. Another poll found a similar divide between what people said if asked whether abortion should be broadly legal and whether they’d support a 15-week ban. A third found 55% saying abortion should be legal in most or all cases, to 42% saying it should be illegal in most or all cases. There are no clear lessons to draw from the polling, and Dunnavant is betting she can sell voters on the “reasonable” restriction of 15 weeks, plus exceptions. She’s using her party’s extremism to try to claim that changing the law to dramatically curtail people’s rights to make their own medical decisions is somehow moderate.

Despite all of the election results over the past year showing that voters across the country just don’t want abortion bans, Dunnavant has the Post’s help in selling that claim. Here’s how the newspaper describes a new online video Dunnavant has released pushing her abortion ban: “The tone of the spot—from the soft music playing in the background to the use of ‘conversation’ rather than ‘debate’—seems intended to cool the heated emotions the topic typically triggers.” And what every attempt at reducing bodily autonomy through legislation needs is for heated emotions to be cooled. If we can’t stop being so hysterical and compromise on the basic right to make medical decisions for ourselves, what hope is there for the nation?

For his part, Del. Schuyler VanValkenburg, Dunnavant’s Democratic opponent in a district that got significantly bluer after redistricting, told the Post, “Virginians want to uphold our current laws that give women access to critical maternal healthcare services, including abortion. I am focused on protecting a woman’s right to make her own healthcare decisions with control over her own bodily autonomy. There is no place for this kind of extremism here in Virginia.”

The Virginia Senate, which is currently under narrow Democratic control, is up for reelection this November, and races like this one could help determine the outcome for the chamber. It’s too bad the Post is still committed to helping faux-moderate Republicans sell their lies.

This week on "The Downballot," we're joined by guest host Joe Sudbay and law professor Quinn Yeargain for a deep dive into major political developments in three states. First up is Arizona, where a key GOP retirement on the Board of Supervisors in jumbo Maricopa County gives Democrats an excellent chance to win their first majority since the 1960s. Then it's on to Arkansas, where citizens are working to overturn a Republican bill that purports to ban "critical race theory" in public schools by qualifying a referendum for the ballot. Finally, we hit Michigan, where Democrats just advanced a measure to have the state add its Electoral College votes to a multistate compact that would elect the president by the national popular vote.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/13/2174981/-Washington-Post-ignores-anti-abortion-candidate-s-record

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