2024 Rundown: Abortion Ban Backlash

Republicans are scrambling to backpedal their support for extreme abortion bans.

Arizonans will soon be faced with a draconian abortion law from 1864. It was a time before Arizona was a state and before women had the right to vote.

This law from over 150 years ago outlaws abortion at the moment of conception, has no exception for rape or incest, and calls for anyone performing an abortion, or helping someone to get an abortion, to spend years in prison.

How is this possible? 

• The Republican efforts to stack the Supreme Court.

• The Republican efforts that overturned Roe v Wade.

• The Republican-controlled Arizona Supreme Court, which made the ruling.

• The Republican-controlled Arizona House stopped Democrats from bringing forward a measure to block the 1864 law.

This is exactly what Republicans have been working towards for decades.

A day before the ruling, Trump made a statement declaring that states will continue to determine abortion rights legislation and that whatever they decide will be “the law of the land.”

Kentucky, Louisiana, West Virginia and Idaho already had laws exactly like Arizona does now. Several other states have near-total abortion bans that are extremely restrictive and are in effect before a woman even knows that she is pregnant. Trump was condoning every one of these laws.

In 2022, Arizona candidate for Senate Kari Lake said that she was "incredibly thrilled” that overturning Roe v. Wade would allow the 1864 law to take effect and that it would “set the course for other states to follow.”

What are these Republicans saying now?

Kari Lake says that the law she was incredibly thrilled about is now out of line and should be overturned.

Trump, who was fully onboard with what all of the other states had done with abortion laws, including states with laws exactly like Arizona's, now says that Arizona's law has gone too far and needs to be fixed.

This comes after Trump also changed his tune on a national abortion ban that he was previously laying out plans for.

Republicans don't disagree with these laws; they don't want to lose elections because of them, and that is an important difference.

Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, reproductive rights have won in state elections seven out of seven times, in red and blue states alike. Democrats are winning, too, flipping red areas to blue.

Reproductive rights measures are on several state ballots in November, including important states for Republicans such as Florida and Arizona.

The problem for the Republican party is that they built their coalition with the support of the most extreme anti-abortionists who truly want total bans nationwide.

Now that Republicans have lost elections and are facing extreme losses in November, all due to abortion rights, some politicians are trying to backpedal their support and hope that no one notices.

America notices. And so does the rest of the Republican party.

Trump’s former Vice President, Mike Pence, said that Trump’s statement on abortion was a “slap in the face to millions of pro-life Americans who voted for [Trump]”.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, who is the president of the anti-abortion Susan. B. Anthony Pro-Life America organization stated that Trump’s statement “cedes the national debate back to the Democrats.”

Even Trump sycophant Lindsey Graham opposed Trump’s statement saying that “if you’re turning the pro-life movement into a geographical movement, I think you’re making a mistake”.

The Arizona Freedom Caucus made a statement against Lake without mentioning her by name, saying, “Unlike some Republicans, state Freedom Caucuses never back down on the issue of life.”

The butting of heads over abortion rights is the latest issue highlighting the lack of unity and extreme dysfunction that has been plaguing the GOP for years. While it seemed this might have peaked with the ousting of former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy by his own party last October, the divisions have continued to grow since then.

Several Republican House members have been directly calling out their majority as a failure, and Marjorie Taylor Greene has been threatening to bring forward a vote to vacate Speaker Mike Johnson over disagreements from the recently passed budget. If that vote were to be successful, two Republican Speakers would be pushed out in just six months, an unprecedented event.

All of this dysfunction has led to the House being the least productive in a century. No bills have reached the President’s desk for months.

This ongoing division will do nothing to help the Republican party, which is already facing an uphill battle this November. Nor will it help them to have numerous states with reproductive rights on the ballot. 

Democrats are well positioned to highlight the extreme abortion bans that have been enacted due to the overturning of Roe v Wade for the next seven months with their large fundraising advantage.

Biden’s campaign has already released a powerful ad that highlighted the true story of a woman’s struggle who needed an abortion for medical reasons but was in a state where she couldn’t get one and suffered life-threatening complications as a result.

The Biden team has also released messaging on social media showing Trump taking credit for appointing the Justices who overturned the nearly 50-year-old Roe v Wade ruling.

Roevember is more than just a slogan, it is an unavoidable reality for a political party that let themselves be overtaken by the extremist MAGA movement.