Republicans have a problem: Their base insists on a nationwide forced-birth law, but political realists in the party understand this is a hugely unpopular position, and one that might lead to electoral disaster. The tactical solution: Hide their abortion extremism while winking to the base.
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The Post reported, “The new Republican platform still includes language that links abortion to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, leaving open a path to legislation or court decisions that would grant fetuses additional legal rights.” That said, “the 16-page document nevertheless infuriated some antiabortion advocates within the party, who view the watered-down language as a faithless betrayal of a core part of the GOP base.” Former president and current Republican candidate Donald Trump now claims he is content to leave the matter to the states.
But when Trump named Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate, any pretense of abortion moderation went out the window. Few voters think Republicans might moderate their stance with someone on the ticket who wants to ban abortion without exceptions for rape or incest.
It is inconceivable that Trump would refuse to sign a nationwide prohibition on abortion if it landed on his desk. He owes his political career in large part to the devotion of White evangelicals, for whom abortion under any circumstances is anathema. He brags that his Supreme Court picks reversed Roe v. Wade. Just as Trump’s denial of any knowledge of Project 2025 (drafted by over 140 of his former aides and championed by the Heritage Foundation, a sponsor of the Republican convention) is not fooling anyone, neither should the platform mislead voters. This remains an extremist party when it comes to abortion.
The selection of Vance clarified the party’s absolutism. Mini Timmaraju, president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, put out a statement following the Vance announcement: “Make no mistake, Trump picked him because of — not in spite of — his anti-abortion bona fides. … Vance has worked in lockstep with extremist Republicans in the Senate to undermine reproductive freedom — refusing to back down from the dangerous abortion bans and restrictions his party has engineered.” She then ticked off the list of his radical positions, which includes favoring an abortion ban without exceptions for rape or incest and opposition to a bill protecting IVF.
Trump, opportunistically, has been all over the map when it comes to abortion: He has swung from a pro-choice Democrat, to a rigid antiabortion Republican who once insisted women should be “punished” for abortions, to someone who said he would consider limits on contraception, to someone denying he suggested any such thing. However, with an ideologue such as Vance at his side, abortion-ban advocates can be reassured that Trump will not stray from their orthodoxy.
Vance, as he has on all his views, immediately tried to fall in line behind Trump. “My view is that Donald Trump is the leader of the Republican Party, and his views on abortion are going to be the views that dominate this party and drive this party forward,” Vance said in a Fox News interview. “Alabama’s going to make a different decision from California. That is a reasonable thing. And that’s how I think we build some bridges and have some respect for one another.” No one who has seen Vance twist himself into a pretzel for a candidate he once analogized to Hitler will be surprised by this transparent maneuvering.
In a Biden-Harris campaign press call after Vance was named, the campaign spokespeople’s focus on his radical abortion position was noteworthy. “He supports a nationwide ban on abortion, criticizes exceptions for rape and incest survivors, actually saying ‘two wrongs don’t make a right’ [and] calling those circumstances ‘inconvenient,’” said reproductive rights advocate Amanda Zurawski.
The campaign put two prominent abortion advocates on the call. “When Donald Trump and J.D. Vance celebrate overturning Roe, they’re celebrating every single cruel abortion ban across the country, many of which have no exceptions for rape or incest,” Timmaraju said. “And, at the end of the day, we always knew Trump would pick someone just as committed to taking away reproductive freedom. But now that it’s official, it couldn’t be more clear.”
Lauren Beene, a general pediatrician who helped organize the ballot measure Issue One to protect abortion rights, weighed in as well. “J.D. Vance called our victory ‘a gut punch,’” she said. “A 10-year-old rape victim couldn’t receive an abortion in her state, but somehow that gut punch was us voting to restore access to reproductive health care?” She added, “Well, that gut punch proved to America that voters will not stand by as MAGA Republicans threaten our rights and freedoms.”
If the Biden-Harris team is going to turn the race around and make progress in swing states (where polling continues to freak out Democratic members of Congress, donors and activists), abortion must be a top issue. Fortunately for Democrats, and for American women more generally, Vice President Harris has been the most eloquent and impassioned defender of abortion rights in the administration. It is no wonder that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), another participant in the campaign press call, declared, “The VP will take it to J.D. Vance. … I’m looking forward to this debate.”
Certainly, the Biden campaign will launch an array of charges against Vance: his cringeworthy lack of experience, his anti-Ukraine rhetoric, his opposition to the Affordable Care Act, his vote against the bipartisan infrastructure bill and his praise for Project 2025. But none is more potent than abortion because no issue is more harmful to Republicans. And none offers Democrats a greater hope of breaking through to critical swing-state voters.
Sign up for the Prompt 2024 newsletter for opinions on the biggest questions in politicsThe Post reported, “The new Republican platform still includes language that links abortion to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, leaving open a path to legislation or court decisions that would grant fetuses additional legal rights.” That said, “the 16-page document nevertheless infuriated some antiabortion advocates within the party, who view the watered-down language as a faithless betrayal of a core part of the GOP base.” Former president and current Republican candidate Donald Trump now claims he is content to leave the matter to the states.
But when Trump named Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate, any pretense of abortion moderation went out the window. Few voters think Republicans might moderate their stance with someone on the ticket who wants to ban abortion without exceptions for rape or incest.
It is inconceivable that Trump would refuse to sign a nationwide prohibition on abortion if it landed on his desk. He owes his political career in large part to the devotion of White evangelicals, for whom abortion under any circumstances is anathema. He brags that his Supreme Court picks reversed Roe v. Wade. Just as Trump’s denial of any knowledge of Project 2025 (drafted by over 140 of his former aides and championed by the Heritage Foundation, a sponsor of the Republican convention) is not fooling anyone, neither should the platform mislead voters. This remains an extremist party when it comes to abortion.
The selection of Vance clarified the party’s absolutism. Mini Timmaraju, president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, put out a statement following the Vance announcement: “Make no mistake, Trump picked him because of — not in spite of — his anti-abortion bona fides. … Vance has worked in lockstep with extremist Republicans in the Senate to undermine reproductive freedom — refusing to back down from the dangerous abortion bans and restrictions his party has engineered.” She then ticked off the list of his radical positions, which includes favoring an abortion ban without exceptions for rape or incest and opposition to a bill protecting IVF.
Trump, opportunistically, has been all over the map when it comes to abortion: He has swung from a pro-choice Democrat, to a rigid antiabortion Republican who once insisted women should be “punished” for abortions, to someone who said he would consider limits on contraception, to someone denying he suggested any such thing. However, with an ideologue such as Vance at his side, abortion-ban advocates can be reassured that Trump will not stray from their orthodoxy.
Vance, as he has on all his views, immediately tried to fall in line behind Trump. “My view is that Donald Trump is the leader of the Republican Party, and his views on abortion are going to be the views that dominate this party and drive this party forward,” Vance said in a Fox News interview. “Alabama’s going to make a different decision from California. That is a reasonable thing. And that’s how I think we build some bridges and have some respect for one another.” No one who has seen Vance twist himself into a pretzel for a candidate he once analogized to Hitler will be surprised by this transparent maneuvering.
In a Biden-Harris campaign press call after Vance was named, the campaign spokespeople’s focus on his radical abortion position was noteworthy. “He supports a nationwide ban on abortion, criticizes exceptions for rape and incest survivors, actually saying ‘two wrongs don’t make a right’ [and] calling those circumstances ‘inconvenient,’” said reproductive rights advocate Amanda Zurawski.
The campaign put two prominent abortion advocates on the call. “When Donald Trump and J.D. Vance celebrate overturning Roe, they’re celebrating every single cruel abortion ban across the country, many of which have no exceptions for rape or incest,” Timmaraju said. “And, at the end of the day, we always knew Trump would pick someone just as committed to taking away reproductive freedom. But now that it’s official, it couldn’t be more clear.”
Lauren Beene, a general pediatrician who helped organize the ballot measure Issue One to protect abortion rights, weighed in as well. “J.D. Vance called our victory ‘a gut punch,’” she said. “A 10-year-old rape victim couldn’t receive an abortion in her state, but somehow that gut punch was us voting to restore access to reproductive health care?” She added, “Well, that gut punch proved to America that voters will not stand by as MAGA Republicans threaten our rights and freedoms.”
If the Biden-Harris team is going to turn the race around and make progress in swing states (where polling continues to freak out Democratic members of Congress, donors and activists), abortion must be a top issue. Fortunately for Democrats, and for American women more generally, Vice President Harris has been the most eloquent and impassioned defender of abortion rights in the administration. It is no wonder that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), another participant in the campaign press call, declared, “The VP will take it to J.D. Vance. … I’m looking forward to this debate.”
Certainly, the Biden campaign will launch an array of charges against Vance: his cringeworthy lack of experience, his anti-Ukraine rhetoric, his opposition to the Affordable Care Act, his vote against the bipartisan infrastructure bill and his praise for Project 2025. But none is more potent than abortion because no issue is more harmful to Republicans. And none offers Democrats a greater hope of breaking through to critical swing-state voters.
