MAGA in the States: Trump and MAGA Republicans Continue Attacks on Reproductive Freedom
May 3, 2024
Two years after the Dobbs decision leak revealed Donald Trump’s Supreme Court majority would overturn Roe v. Wade, Trump and his MAGA Republican party continue to wreak havoc across the country through their extreme abortion bans, leaving women and health professionals alike in desperate situations. From abortion bans to voter suppression and dangerous rhetoric, Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans aren’t backing off their extremist attacks on Americans’ fundamental rights.
Take a look at the latest:
Thanks to Donald Trump, an extreme abortion ban went into effect in Florida this week, creating devastating consequences for women living in the state and across the entire Southern region of the United States, as options for reproductive care grow scarce.
Washington Post: “Tears and despair at Florida abortion clinic in final hours before ban”
“As of Wednesday morning, clinics across the country’s third-largest state can no longer offer abortions to most patients who walk through their doors — forced to turn away any woman who is further than six weeks along, a point when many still don’t know they’re pregnant. The enactment of Florida’s new ban on May 1 is widely expected to be the biggest jolt to abortion access across the country since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022.”
Miami Herald: “I’m an emergency room doctor, and Florida’s six-week abortion ban endangers lives | Opinion”
“Pregnancy is one of the most dangerous endeavors that a young healthy woman can undergo. The risk of domestic violence increases when a woman is pregnant, and homicide is a leading cause of death for pregnant women.
“Our country has an unreasonably high maternal mortality rate, and Black women suffer most. All of these risks feel more intense for our pediatric patients, some of whom are too young to truly understand.
“To our legislators in Tallahassee, the abortion ban is an abstract idea. But if they spent time in the emergency department, up close to the reality of early pregnancy, they would see what I see. And they’d know that this law hurts real women, who have real lives and real health conditions, who support real families, many of whom already have real children.”
New York Times: “Florida’s Abortion Ban Will Reach Well Beyond Florida”
“‘This is a seismic event for everyone in the ecosystem,’ said Jenny Black, the chief executive of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, which operates in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. ‘It is impossible to overstate the impact of this ban on abortion access in the whole Southeast, probably all up the Eastern Seaboard.’”
Thanks to Trump, women in states across the country are confronting the terrifying new reality of living under dangerous, extreme abortion bans, leaving doctors and patients to suffer the consequences. Trump and his MAGA allies have made clear they won’t stop until they install a national abortion ban.
Arizona Republic: “Don’t be conned: Arizona’s 1864 abortion ban was not actually repealed”
“As it is, the repeal makes it look to the world outside of Arizona that we’ve shelved the brutal old law, but we haven’t.
“Not yet.” […]
“And even when the 1864 law expires Arizona still will have a law on the books that limits abortion to 15 weeks and allows no exceptions for rape or incest.”
Kansas City Star: “Kansas Republicans easily override Kelly vetoes, enacting new restrictions on abortions”
“The Republican-controlled Legislature on Monday evening voted to override Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s vetoes on two anti-abortion laws that create additional guardrails around abortion just two years after residents overwhelmingly voted to affirm abortion rights in the state constitution.
“One law requires health care providers to ask women their primary reason to seek an abortion, while another criminalizes coercing pregnant women into obtaining an abortion.” […]
“Legislators also voted 28-10 in the Senate and 85-40 in the House to override Kelly’s veto on a law that would make it a felony to coerce a woman into undergoing an abortion.”
HuffPost: “GOP Rep. Scott Perry Flip-Flops On Whether He Backs A National Abortion Ban”
“The Pennsylvania Republican is hoping nobody notices that he’s signed on to legislation in Congress for the last seven years to impose a near-total nationwide abortion ban ― and he’s still a cosponsor of this bill.
“Perry has backed the Life at Conception Act in every Congress since 2017. This bill guarantees a constitutional ‘right to life’ to every ‘human being,’ and defines ‘human being’ to include ‘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.’” […]
“Here is Perry’s name officially listed as a sponsor of this bill in 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2023. His name has an asterisk next to it to denote that he is an original sponsor of this bill, meaning he signed onto it as a supporter as soon as it was introduced.”
Trump continues to spew lies about the 2020 election and signals that, this November, he will once again contest the results of free and fair elections. In the states, Trump’s MAGA minions are following their leader’s anti-democratic example.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “In interview, Trump doesn’t commit to accepting Wisconsin election results if he loses”
“WAUKESHA – Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday didn’t commit to accepting the results of Wisconsin’s presidential election in November if he does not win and again promoted the falsehood that he won the Badger State in 2020.
“In an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the former president said he would accept the results of the November election showing he lost ‘if everything’s honest.’
“‘If everything’s honest, I’d gladly accept the results,’ Trump said in an interview Wednesday. ‘If it’s not, you have to fight for the right of the country.’
“‘But if everything’s honest, which we anticipate it will be — a lot of changes have been made over the last few years — but if everything’s honest, I will absolutely accept the results,’ he said.”
Reuters: “Trump warns he may not accept Wisconsin election results”
“Donald Trump said he may not accept the 2024 election results in Wisconsin, a key battleground state in his matchup with President Joe Biden, leaving open the possibility of post-election turmoil.
“In an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Wednesday, Trump said that if he does not believe the result in November’s election was legitimate, ‘you have to fight for the right of the country.’”
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Wisconsin Republicans recruiting legion of monitors to observe polls, set stage for lawsuits”
“GOP officials say they plan to recruit 100,000 people nationwide to observe election processes and voting, an expansion of typical activities for political parties in election years. The party’s rhetoric surrounding the plans, however, describes the program as a solution to former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss that has been confirmed in Wisconsin by judges, recounts, studies and audits.” […]
“‘Donald Trump and his Republican allies are running a large-scale voter suppression campaign to make voting harder and undermine faith in fair elections just like they did in 2020,’ Addy Toevs, spokeswoman for the DNC, said.
“‘Democrats will continue to invest in protecting free elections and empower Wisconsinites to make their voices heard in this critical November election. We won’t let Trump and MAGA Republicans get away with their dirty tricks.’”