THEY ALWAYS WANTED THIS

Back in 2012, Republican candidate Todd Akin - who was running against Claire McCaskill for the Senate that year - became a public joke when his explanation of why he opposed abortion, even in cases of rape or incest, made it into the news cycle.

Who can forget?

“It seems to me, from what I understand from doctors, [pregnancy from rape is] really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan called Akin’s statement “outrageous” and “offensive.” McCaskill went on to win a race many had thought at the outset she might lose; her campaign did put effort into taking every opportunity to promote Akin’s candidacy during the primary election, believing he was the “crazy” on the list and the one most beatable. Akin was joined in defeat by Richard Mourdock, who said during his campaign that pregnancy from rape was “something God intended to happen.”

The problem with Akin and Mourdock for anti-abortion Republicans at the time wasn’t that they opposed abortion even in cases of rape and incest; the two of them very definitely represented the views of at least a substantial minority of Republican voters, and very certainly a majority of the Fundamentalist branch of the GOP. Akin and Mourdock had made the mistake of saying the quiet part out loud, when it wasn’t politically viable to do such a thing. The party could not be seen publicly agreeing with that absolutist position on abortion.

But now... things are different.

Following the leaked draft majority opinion of the Supreme Cpirt overturning Roe v. Wade, CNN’s Dana Bash asked Nebraska’s Republican governor Pete Ricketts if he thought a young girl who was raped, or the victim of incest, should be forced by the state of Nebraska to continue that pregnancy ad carry it to term. Ricketts replied: “Those are babies too.”

This time, National Republicans felt no need to issue a condemnation of Ricketts’ answer. With the end to legal abortion they have campaigned for over the past 45 years, the anti-abortion movement is now proclaiming - as seen in the actions of Republican-dominated state legislatures in states with Republican governors who would sign such legislation - that htye intend to see abortion banned without any exceptions. Not the life of the mother, not incest, not rape.

Given that the Republican platform has opposed abortion without exception since 2004, this shouldn’t be as shocking as opponents are finding it.

While a recent YouGov/Economist poll found only 18 percent of respondents said they believe abortion should be banned if the pregnancy is the result of rape, and only five percent oppose abortion in all circumstances, the fact that the absolutist position has that much unpopularity no longer matters. Now that the Far Right has a 6-3 majority on the Court abortion opponents no longer need to camouflage their goal in politically-acceptable language.

The push in state legislatures to abolish the rape and incest exceptions is happening because that was always the goal, and now that they see a court decision that turns the question back to the state level, they are doing what they always said among themselves they would do. If that wasn’t the case, the laws being written would incorporate bans starting at less than 15 weeks, as the Mississippi law in Dobbs did.

For the time, the anti-abortion legislators have decided that pushing for punishment of a woman who attempts to obtain or gets an abortion is pushing things too far - after they saw the national pushback to the proposed law doing that in Louisiana - but one can be assured if there is a Republican victory in November that sees control of Congress change hands and the likelihood of a Republican returning to the White House in 2024, those laws will be written, voted on and passed, and signed into law by the Republican governors.

And the Republican candidates for Congress and Senate support this. If they become the majority, they have already promised passage of a national ban on abortion that goes further than the leaked decision of the court leaving the issue to the states. And after Joe Biden vetoes it, they will run on that in 2024.

Public opinion be damned.

There are so many issues and policy outcomes that depend on the result of the November election. It truly is the most important election of our lifetimes, and the most important since 1860.

Vote like your life depended on it - if you think you’re safe, then vote like the life to those you know and love depended on it.

Because it does.

I hope the many new free subscribers who have come to That’s Another Fine Mess this past month will consider joining the paid subscribers, whose support is what keeps the lights on here and the project moving forward.