The 2024 Presidential Campaign has begun, seemingly headed for a rematch of the 2020 race.
An issue that will be front and center will be abortion. And Donald Trump laid down his marker of how he would further his and his party’s agenda to outlaw a woman’s right to choose with this eight word declaration:
“I was able to kill Roe v Wade.”
The former president, who is under indictment for campaign violations related to hush money for a porn star he allegedly slept with, wants to continue the roll back of rights for women. Trump took credit for the new abortion laws across the U.S. on his Truth social media site last week:
“After 50 years of failure, with nobody coming even close, I was able to kill Roe v. Wade, much to the “shock” of everyone, and for the first time put the Pro Life movement in a strong negotiating position over the Radicals that are willing to kill babies even into their 9th month, and beyond. Without me there would be no 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 15 weeks, or whatever is finally agreed to. Without me the pro Life movement would have just kept losing. Thank you President TRUMP!!!”
With his appointments to the Supreme Court and helped by lower court rulings with Republican appointed justices, Trump did accomplish something that no GOP president before him was able to. Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett delivered for the pro-life movement when the court voted 6-3 in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization last June.
Republicans will and have continued to push the issue in elections and statehouses across the U.S. since then, just as they did last week in North Carolina. GOP lawmakers had enough votes to override Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) veto of an abortion ban after a Democrat lawmaker switched parties earlier this year.
The ban restricts most abortions in North Carolina to 12 weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest, certain fetal abnormalities and the life of the mother. Additionally, the law mandates detailed information about abortion procedures be reported to state health regulators and institutes longer waiting periods and more in-person medical visits to obtain an abortion.
Make no mistake about it: Republicans may say abortion is a state’s right issue now in legal battles, but they want to make it a federal ban for a woman to have a choice.
That tell is in Trump’s statement above.
While the Roe v Wade defeat celebration received the headline and will be used by Democrats in ads for the next 18 months, the key sentence is “Without me there would be no 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 15 weeks, or whatever is finally agreed to.”
“Whatever is finally agreed to.”
That is his declaration—and honestly his party’s no matter if he is the nominee or not in 2024—that he will sign off on any measure passed by a Republican Congress for a national abortion ban.
Abortion will be a topline issue moving forward. Democrats will not rest until the rights of women had for 50 years under Roe v Wade are restored. And Republicans will not be satisfied until they are able to pass a bill through Congress that makes the U.S. the 25th country to ban abortions. For those who question that last statement, we ask this: did you believe two years ago that states across America would have abortions bans?
Donald Trump and Republicans should be taken at their word. They want to continue to take the rights away from women across the country, including in New Jersey. Their rhetoric followed by their actions over the last year has shown you where they want to go and how far they are willing to go to accomplish their goals.
There is one and only one issue in 2024 – Abortion. What is at stake is the right of women to control their bodies, but also the right of all Americans to privacy, to contraception, and other basic human rights that Christo-Fascists want to take away. We must elect Democrats up and down the ticket to enshrine the protections of Roe v Wade at the national level, and to appoint judges who will uphold such protections.
The likelihood of a Federal abortion ban is about zero so the panic and hysteria are uncalled-for.
First the assumption is that Trump is nominated and elected and that’s is unlikely. He lost by 10 million votes the last time and would lose by a greater margin after his disgraceful post-election behavior that caused the Republican disaster in the mid-terms.
The second assumption is that Republicans control both houses of Congress and every Republican legislator would vote for a national ban. But Trump lead the Republicans to electoral disaster in the mid-terms, losing the Senate and producing a very weak House. Why would Republicans do better with Trump on the ticket? They will do worse. And many sensible Republicans support the idea that each state should decide the issue and will vote to uphold the States’Right approach.
The third assumption is that the Supreme Court would find a Federal abortion ban constitutional after having just found in Dobbs that abortion is a matter reserved to the States under the 10th Amendment.
Trump, and the GOP, have shown themselves to offer virtually nothing of value to the American people, but plenty to Putin.
I would love to see statements by Republican office holders in the state of NJ. on this issue.
LOOK! What many may See, is that President Donald Trump is using this platform & knowing that it’ll eventually will end up in the Court’s!! AND; Under the Constitution will restore & preserve People’s Rites & Freedoms of Choice!! BUT; Unfortunately, many sitting in Court today have their own interpretations or’n that of their benefactors!! The People Say, ” Let the ones whom Ride Decide. “.. After all, it is a Constitutional Rite 101 & perhaps some brushing ups are needed here, without any Adlibbings!!//
Whether the Republicans will have full control over the federal government in 2024 or not, the GOP is telling us who they are: would-be authoritarians eager and willing to legislatively control women’s bodies and everyone’s sex lives, but unwilling to prevent corporations from working labor to death.