NEW: House GOP Retreat Message: Talk MORE About Their Cruel, Unpopular Plan To Ban Abortion
March 13, 2024
In response to MAGA Republicans pushing each other to talk more about their extreme anti-choice agenda, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement:
“MAGA Republicans are doing Democrats’ work for us by making clear to voters that they will continue to push a cruel anti-choice agenda to ban abortion nationwide, threaten access to IVF, and rip away freedoms from women across this country. House Republicans are taking a page from Trump’s losing playbook – Trump, who is already hemorrhaging support with women, is on the campaign trail losing more votes by the day as he brags about his role in overturning Roe v. Wade, takes credit for extreme abortion bans across the country, and advocates for a national ban. No matter how many elections MAGA Republicans lose, they keep doubling down on their unpopular anti-freedom platform that voters will reject up and down the ballot once again this November.”
NEW: Republicans’ new strategy is to talk more about their cruel anti-freedom MAGA agenda that is ripping away reproductive rights from women across the country.
Wall Street Journal: “Republicans’ New Abortion Strategy: Talk About It More, Not Less”
“Republicans leading the party’s effort to defend the House in this fall’s elections are pushing GOP colleagues to openly discuss their positions on abortion, rather than try to sidestep the issue like many did in the previous campaign, arguing that doing so will be critical to winning competitive races.”
“Abortion has weighed on the party’s success in recent years. Republicans won back the House in 2022 but by a narrower-than-expected margin, a far cry from the ‘red wave’ they had hoped would sweep them to a big majority in the chamber. Lawmakers from both parties say the Supreme Court’s decision that year ending the right to an abortion revved up abortion-rights voters and helped Democrats defend seats.”
“More than a dozen GOP-controlled states have enacted a near ban on abortion, many of those with few exceptions for rape or incest. Others, like Florida, have banned abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.”
“While some congressional Republicans do support near-complete bans on abortions or restrictions that kick in at six weeks, others have backed bans after 15 weeks of pregnancy.”
“Issues around reproductive rights are already causing headaches for Republicans in this election cycle. … Both parties know it is a key issue for voters. In a Wall Street Journal poll this past month, voters of both parties ranked abortion as the top issue that they must agree with a candidate’s stance on. When asked to name the one issue on which they wouldn’t vote for a candidate who disagreed with them, 22% said abortion.”
REMINDER: Donald Trump wants to ban abortion nationwide.
Rolling Stone: “Trump Wants to Ban Abortion Nationwide: Report”
Rolling Stone: “Trump Floats National Abortion Ban After Claiming He’s ‘On the Side of Women’”
Trump: “There of course remains a vital role for the federal government in protecting unborn life. And it’s very important.”
Trump on if he would sign a six-week national abortion ban: “I’m looking at all options.”
Trump: “We’ll pick something that’s going to be very, very good for pro-life … I’m going to be in there pushing.”
Trump won’t stop bragging about his role in overturning Roe v. Wade while demanding credit for cruel abortion bans across the country and doubling down on his extreme record.
Trump: “For 54 years they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated, and I did it, and I’m proud to have done it. … Nobody else was going to get that done but me, and we did it, and we did something that was a miracle.”
Trump: “I was able to kill Roe v. Wade … Without me there would be no 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 15 weeks, or whatever is finally agreed to. Without me the pro Life movement would have just kept losing. Thank you President TRUMP!!!”
Rolling Stone: “Trump Claims Credit for All Abortion Bans”
Business Insider: “Trump boasts he’s ‘proud’ about his role in overturning Roe v. Wade, the issue that has become ballot-box poison for Republicans”
Rolling Stone: “Trump Says He’s ‘Proud’ to Have ‘Terminated’ Abortion Rights”
FWIW: “This week, we found more evidence that the Trump campaign has no interest in ‘moderating’ on the issue of abortion. On Monday, his team began running new Facebook video ads targeting voters in Iowa, referring to Trump as ‘THE MOST Pro-Life President in history.’”
Trump campaign radio ad: “Trump nominated conservative judges, leading to Roe v. Wade being overturned.”
Trump: “There has to be some form of punishment [for women who have abortions].”
The Hill: “The Trump administration formally backed a House bill Monday that would ban abortions after 20 weeks. … It would make it a crime to perform or attempt an abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, with the possibility of a fine, up to five years in prison or both.”
Senate Republicans have blocked basic protections for IVF, and 125 House Republicans – including Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson – have supported the Life at Conception Act, which could rip away IVF access from families nationwide.
Alanna Vagianos, HuffPost: “Just now: Senate Republicans block a bill to protect IVF & other fertility services for veterans & service members.”
Associated Press: “Republicans block Senate bill to protect nationwide access to IVF treatments”
The Hill: “Senate Republicans blocked an effort Wednesday to pass legislation that would federally protect access to in vitro fertilization (IVF).”
Daily Beast: “Republicans Struggle to Explain Away Their Hypocrisy on IVF”
Business Insider: “Most House Republicans have cosponsored a bill declaring that life begins from the moment of conception, a position under increased scrutiny after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are ‘unborn children.’
“This Congress, 125 House Republicans — including Speaker Mike Johnson — have cosponsored the ‘Life at Conception Act,’ which states that the term ‘human being’ includes ‘all stages of life, including the moment of fertilization, cloning, or other moment at which an individual member of the human species comes into being.’
“The bill does not include any exception for in vitro fertilization (IVF), a reproductive treatment that allows mothers to fertilize several eggs outside the womb in order to increase the chances of a viable pregnancy.”
NBC News: “But with the landmark Roe ruling protecting those rights gone, efforts by conservative lawmakers and judges to advance fetal personhood bills pose a real threat to some fertility treatments, including IVF, reproductive rights advocates say.”
Politico: “Dozens of congressional Republicans have signed onto so-called personhood legislation with no carve-out for embryos in clinics, which, if enacted, would upend how the procedure is practiced in the United States.”
Trump made possible the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that threatened IVF treatment by paving the way for the reversal of Roe v. Wade.
CNN: “How the reversal of Roe v. Wade led to the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are children”
New York Times: “[The Alabama ruling was] made possible by the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in its 2022 Dobbs decision, which was a result of Mr. Trump’s appointment of three justices.”
REMINDER: MAGA Republicans’ extreme anti-abortion agenda is overwhelmingly unpopular with voters.
USA Today: “Americans overwhelmingly oppose the next goal of many anti-abortion activists, to enact a federal law banning abortion nationwide. By 80%-14%, those surveyed opposed that idea, including 65% of Republicans and 83% of independents.”
Axios: “Most Americans support abortion access one year after Roe v. Wade: poll”
CNN: “A 64% majority of US adults say they disapprove of last year’s Supreme Court ruling that women do not have a constitutional right to an abortion, with half strongly disapproving – an assessment that’s almost entirely unchanged from CNN’s poll last July in the immediate wake of the decision.”