The odious Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) is running hard to be the new GOP leader, and will do or say anything to get there. Elected in 2014 as a relative moderate among Republicans—up until the last minute in 2017, she didn’t even want to repeal Obamacare—she saw which way the wind was blowing and didn’t just join the MAGA team, but became a conductor. The way she wants to conquer the Party, this New York Times profile says, is to be the “queenmaker.” That means electing more Republican women.
Remarkably, Stefanik thinks she—and the GOP majority—will succeed this cycle with women and everybody else on abortion because voters will see through their tricks and mind-bending ways. No, really.
“On the issue of abortion, Democrats are working overtime to force the American people to rethink what their top priorities are,” Stefanik said. Yes, the Democrats are using their mind-control abilities to force voters to be angry that Republicans and the Trump-packed Supreme Court just erased a half-century of abortion rights in a huge swath of the country and want to extend it nationally.
She’s staking her claim in the race for House Republican conference chair on that basis, insisting that “we will have a ‘pro-life’ Republican majority in the next Congress.” That means, yes, a national abortion ban. The policy platform House Republican leadership accidentally let go live online this week proves it.
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The Commitment to America platform promises to “protect the lives of unborn children and their mothers,” which is code for “a national abortion ban.” At least, it was enough for the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America lobby. “Thank you to Republican House Leadership for your ‘Commitment to America’ plan that recognizes the role Congress has in protecting unborn children & their moms from abortion,” they tweeted. That’s the group whose vice president for communications called Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) 15-week national abortion ban “a fantastic place for Republicans to start.”
The end goal for the forced birth movement will always be a total, national ban on abortion. Republicans are so reliant on that movement to help them get elected that, at this point, they will happily follow them down that rabbit hole. Outside of general election campaigns, that is.
Stefanik thinks it will be okay, though, because the Republican candidates she’s pushing are mothers. “‘I think that’s a very compelling message to voters,’ she said, noting that one congressional candidate in Ohio, Madison Gesiotto Gilbert, gave birth just days ago.”
That’s not reality outside of the gerrymandered world Stefanik lives in, however. The new Marquette National Law School survey on the issue is informative and surprising, because it demonstrates clearly that partisanship takes a back seat to support for abortion rights. They tested it.
In a hypothetical choice between a candidate who favors keeping abortion legal and a candidate who favors strictly limiting abortion, 55% support the abortion rights candidate and 30% favor the candidate who would limit abortion, while 15% say the abortion issue would not matter to them. Half of respondents were asked this question.
In an experiment, the other half of the sample were asked the same question but with the candidates identified as a Democrat who favors abortion rights and a Republican who favors strict limits on abortion. Providing this partisan cue made no difference in the results, with 54% favoring the Democrat supporter of abortion rights and 29% favoring the Republican who favors limiting abortion, with 17% saying abortion would not matter for them.
But, yes, tell us how it’s Democrats forcing voters into making abortion a thing in this election, Rep. Stefanik.
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