The Republican Party's Fake Ballot Measures - how they plan to trick voters on abortion rights
23 April 2024
This post highlights Jessica Valenti’s recent blog essay:
After nearly two years of losing elections, Republicans think they have an answer to their abortion problem: If you can’t beat them, pretend to be them.
With Americans furious over bans, support for abortion right skyrocketing, and the issue winning every ballot measure since Roe was overturned, conservatives’ new strategy is to propose ‘pro-choice’ amendments of their own. Disguised as initiatives to protect abortion rights, these measures would actually trick voters into codifying Republican bans.
In Arizona, for example, Republicans are considering a ‘pro-choice’ amendment to distract from anger over the 1864 ban and to undercut a real abortion rights measure. A leaked strategy document shows that the amendment would claim to protect abortion up until 15 weeks, but be made toothless by restrictions enshrined alongside it.
. . .
In a moment when Americans overwhelmingly want abortion to be legal, Republicans are desperate to sound as reasonable, moderate, and even as ‘pro-choice’, as possible. Their extremist talking points haven’t worked; that’s why they’ve shifted from taking about ‘bans’ and abortion being ‘murder,’ to using words like ‘consensus’ and ‘compassion.’ Conservatives need voters to believe that they’re seeking some sort of middle ground.
The truth? They will say anything to ban abortion and to keep it banned. They’d rather craft elaborate, deceptive ballot measures than lift wildly unpopular and unwanted restrictions. And they’d rather frame their policies as pro-choice than risk losing another vote. [emphasis added]
Instead of changing their unpopular positions on abortion, the Republican Party is “doubling down” and making their positions even more stringent. As a supporter of the reproductive rights of women and girls, I pledge to work even harder in the 2024 election to support candidates protecting these rights. How about you?
Here are some of my related blog essays:
Florida's abortion ban - bad for women and bad for business, 4 April 2024
How red states are torturing pregnant women, 25 October 2023
The war against birth control, 20 October 2023
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