Jamelle Bouie on Kellyanne Conway’s lame attempt to paper over the GOP’s problem on reproductive rights:
Republican strategists are well aware that abortion is an albatross around the party’s neck. Their advice? Find new language.
“If it took 50 years to overturn Roe v. Wade, it’s going to take more than 50 minutes, 50 hours or 50 weeks to explain to people what that means, and more importantly, what it doesn’t mean, and to move hearts and minds,” said Kellyanne Conway, a former adviser to Donald Trump, at Politico’s Health Care Summit on Wednesday. During the conversation, she advised Republican candidates to focus on “concession” and “consensus” and to turn the conversation toward exceptions. She also urged Republicans to avoid ballot initiatives on abortion, for fear that they could mobilize voters against them.
I have no doubt that Republicans will take this advice; they are desperate to neutralize the issue. But the Republican abortion problem isn’t an issue of language, it’s an issue of material reality. The reason voters are turned off by the Republican position on abortion has less to do with language and more to do with the actual consequences of putting tight restrictions on reproductive rights. Countless Americans have direct experience with difficult and complicated pregnancies; countless Americans have direct experience with abortion care; and countless Americans are rightfully horrified by the stories of injury and cruelty coming out of anti-abortion states.
No amount of rhetorical moderation on abortion will diminish the impact of stories like that of K Monica Kelly, who had to travel from Tennessee to Florida to end a potentially life-threatening pregnancy, thanks to Tennessee’s strict post-Dobbs abortion ban. Nor will it obscure the extent to which the most conservative Republicans are gunning for other reproductive health services, from hormonal birth control to in vitro fertilization.
Good luck Kellyanne. I don’t think this one’s going to fly. What do you plan to do about zealots like Speaker Mike Johnson who wasn’t exactly helpful:
“We need to look at the ethics surrounding that issue, but it’s an important one,” Johnson told “CBS Mornings” co-host Tony Dokoupil on Thursday. “If you do believe that life begins at conception, it’s a really important question to wrestle with.”
Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, made clear his support for the “sanctity of life” as well as IVF. But he then said there’s an “ethical handling” of the issue that must be considered by states.
“In some states, like in Louisiana, there’s a limit on the number of embryos that can be created because they’re sensitive to that issue,” he said. “But it’s something that every state has to wrestle with and I think Alabama has done a good job of it.”
Yeah. This is going great for them.