The Republican / Forced Birth / Shooters party knows it has a political anvil tied around its neck in the aftermath of the right-wing Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. It succeeded in mobilizing a heretofore quiet pro-choice movement, who went to the mid-term polls and defeated Republican candidates who embraced the court's reactionary decision. Now, seeing the upsurge in opposition, Republicans are doing what they do best: lying and obscuring their positions. Jessica Valenti writes at the New York Times:
"Republicans hope that by changing the way Americans talk about abortion, it might help change the way they feel about abortion — which is, right now, very pro-choice. A record 69 percent of American adults say abortion should generally be legal in the first trimester, and anger over bans has Republicans losing election after election, from ballot measure initiatives in Kansas and Kentucky to the State Supreme Court in Wisconsin.
It makes sense. After all, Americans have now seen a woman vomit before testifying about watching her newborn take pained last gasps for air — the result of being forced to carry a doomed pregnancy to term in Texas. The cruelty of abortion bans is revealed with every new story of a woman being allowed to slip into sepsis or a raped child being denied care.
But rather than change the policies that are causing so much suffering, conservatives seem to believe they can talk their way out of the problem not just with political messaging but also by manipulating medical and legal language." (our emphasis)
So, as Valenti points out, an "abortion ban" becomes a 15-week "standard," which is still a ban. They're aided by wingnut doctors who want to obfuscate by using so-called "life affirming" language:
"This summer, for example, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists published a 'Glossary of Medical Terms' instructing doctors on what 'life affirming' language to use. Under their guidance, a woman whose fetus has a fatal anomaly would be told not that the condition is terminal but that it’s 'life limiting.' Similarly, if someone’s water breaks months before her due date, she would be informed not that the pregnancy is nonviable but that it’s 'pre-viable.' The goal is in part to persuade women to carry doomed pregnancies, which can be emotionally and physically catastrophic." (our emphasis)
With over 50 years of opposing women's reproductive rights behind them, Republicans may try to deceive voters with their cynical wordsmithing, but they still have to come back to the bright daylight of defending their reactionary, misogynist positions to the public, whether they want to use the word "ban" or not.
