There’s an old story about two guys sitting on a porch. One says, “See that dog? He’s been barking and chasing after cars for weeks. What’s he gonna do if he catches one?”
The Supreme Court’s Roe v Wade decision happened in 1973, when I was 16 years old. For almost 50 years, abortion was legal. During that time, conservatives and evangelicals have been chasing after that car like a yappy dog. They gave sermons about the immorality of abortion. They said women and girls should be forced to give birth. They ran for office with the pro-life label. They organized marches on Washington. They had prayer vigils. They raised money (lots and lots of money). They picketed every day in front of abortion clinics. A few even bombed clinics or murdered doctors. They did these things for fifty years. They claimed to be pro-life. They claimed to be moral Christians.
Then Trump got elected and appointed some Supreme Court justices and in the 2022 Dobbs decision, Roe was overturned. The dog caught the car. But the dog didn’t know what to do next.
Trump recently recorded a video saying “It’s now up to the states.” He said each state can decide. It’s states’ rights. I don’t think he actually cares about the issue. He only cares about getting elected in 2024. He has said that he only hires “the best people” but that’s not true, either. He hires lickspittle toads. He fires anyone who doesn’t praise him for his brilliant mind. But he can’t fire his children and their spouses.
I think one of his advisors (probably one of his children) told him to moderate his position. Told him to call it a matter of ”states’ rights.” Southerners love that phrase. Trump is not very intelligent (in reality) but his ego tells him he’s a stable genius (a “billionaire!”), so he thinks he can pretend to be a moderate. He needs voters to vote for him.
I think there are some female voters who have had an abortion. There’s another larger percentage of women who had a friend who got an abortion. Plus there are mothers and grandmothers of women who got an abortion. I think Trump is losing women. But I think he’s also losing some evangelicals who want to outlaw abortion nationwide. He’s trying to be moderate, but he’s alienating a lot of voters.
I think his recent statement on abortion will be disastrous for him. The AZ Supreme Court decision (excepting the life of the mother, but not rape or incest) and the GA Supreme Court decision (about zygotes who aren’t even fetuses being human beings) are too extreme.
The dog caught the car and doesn’t know what to do next. He made his bed and he can lie in it.