Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Bogus polls are all they’ve got left. Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls a year from now.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

When the time comes to make an endorsement, the pain of NYT editors will be palpable as they reluctantly whisper “Biden.”

Republicans would impeach Biden if he bit into a whole Kit Kat rather than breaking the sections apart.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

The problem people have with Biden’s age is the color of the VPs skin.

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

American History and Black History can not be separated.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / Late Night Open Thread: The GOP Hates Women & Families

Late Night Open Thread: The GOP Hates Women & Families

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Greg Sargent, at the New Republic — “Trump’s Panicky Eruption Over Embryo Ruling Won’t Fix GOP’s IVF Mess”:

When Donald Trump attacked the recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos should be considered children, it was widely seen as a glaring indicator of a new political reality. Trump and Republicans, analysts noted, recognize the dangers of appearing aligned against in vitro fertilization and are bolting from the decision as fast as possible.

But for a largely overlooked reason, this political morass will be harder for Republicans to extricate themselves from than they might think. This issue will continue playing out not just on the federal level but also at the level of the states, where the true implications of GOP positions on reproductive rights will be harder to evade.

Democrats are planning to make a big issue out of IVF in this year’s battle for control of state legislatures, strategists tell me. This will entail highlighting state-level bills and laws that define fetuses as people and could impact access to IVF, especially now that anti-choice activists are emboldened by the Alabama ruling…

This week, Democrats are announcing a new round of spending by the DLCC on 2024 state legislative contests, bringing the total spent to $750,000 this cycle. The group will channel resources into the battle to flip control of the legislatures in Arizona and Wisconsin (where the party just secured fair district maps) and the state House in New Hampshire, suggesting Democrats see opportunities to gain ground in those states. In a surprise, the DLCC also expects to announce investments soon in breaking the GOP supermajority in Kansas, where the governor is a Democrat.

Meanwhile, Democrats plan to highlight the GOP push for so-called “fetal personhood bills,” which seek to enshrine full rights for fetuses on the grounds that life begins at fertilization. According to the Guttmacher Institute, proposals have been introduced in at least a dozen states, reflecting the rush of anti-abortion legislation unleashed by the U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2022 striking down abortion rights…

More generally, the ruling is a vivid reminder that the future of reproductive rights will likely live or die in the states—and that this could intrude to an untold degree on intensely personal decisions about whether to have children despite infertility. As Williams of the DLCC points out, the Alabama outcome again demonstrates that the “Republican crusade against women” isn’t “just about abortion.”

“It is about control and power,” Williams said.

Trump’s splenetic reaction to the Alabama news smacked of genuine political panic, illustrating the GOP bind. Under his leadership, Trump tweeted, the GOP would support “the availability of fertility treatments like IVF in every State in America,” adding that “the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of Americans” support IVF to “have a precious baby.”…

Meanwhile, the Alabama decision is crystallizing a sense among Democrats that the last stand in defense of reproductive rights will unfold in the states. That’s enabling them to mobilize a socially liberal coalition in these oft-overlooked local contests while dramatically raising their stakes.

For too long, the DLCC’s Williams said, Republicans have gotten away with “fly by night” tactics, in which they pass “egregious, horrific laws” and then “preserve their own power through backdoor deals on redistricting.” Now, said Williams, “they are going to be held accountable.”

… FOR MANY YEARS, Johnson worked as an attorney for and with the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal organization that later changed its name to the Alliance Defending Freedom. In 2013, Johnson and other ADF-affiliated attorneys filed a lawsuit on behalf of Louisiana College, a pro-life institution that had previously employed Johnson, against federal regulations which—according to the lawsuit—required employer health insurance plans “to provide free coverage of contraceptive services, including so-called ‘emergency contraceptives’ that cause early abortions.” The lawsuit alleged that some drugs and devices covered by the regulations, including Plan B, ella, and some IUDs, were “known abortifacients, in that they can cause the death of an embryo by preventing it from implanting in the wall of the uterus.”…

In 2016, Johnson was elected to Congress, and in 2017, he cosponsored the Life at Conception Act. The bill declared that personhood, including a constitutionally guaranteed right to life, applied to “every member of the species homo sapiens” from “the moment of fertilization, cloning,” or any other mechanism of creation. By referring to cloning, Johnson and his colleagues signaled that their intent was to protect embryos in labs and clinics, not just in the womb.

Johnson cosponsored the same legislation in 2019, 2021, and 2023. And in speeches and hearings, he emphasized that life began at conception, not implantation…

Since then, Johnson has continued to focus on conception as the point at which a human being acquires rights. In 2022, he introduced the Unborn Child Support Act, reasoning that “a pregnant mother should be able to seek child support for the unborn child dating all the way back to the moment of conception.”…

Reader Interactions

39Comments

  1. 1.

    Poe Larity

    How many embryos can dance in the head of a pin?

    Screw the boys from Brazil, we should have been cloning Monty Python.

  2. 2.

    AlaskaReader

    Just a reminder:

    There’s not one Republican Party member who has any redeeming value.

    We need to remove every single one of them from any and all levels of our government.

    …and Republican voters are every bit as corrupt and depraved as are the corrupt and depraved people they elect.

    If a Republican says they are ‘pro-life’, it only refers to their own life, no one else’s.

    Republicans have been bad faith actors for decades but never so clearly as now.

     

    The problem is not just Trumpism, it is the entire Republican party.

    The Republican Party built the foundation Trump sits atop,

    …and they need to pick up that tab.

  3. 3.

    FelonyGovt

    Their position really leads to absurd results. Pregnant women as a carpool. Tax deductions as a dependent for a fetus.

  4. 4.

    mrmoshpotato

    I will be voting to re-elect my state’s junior Senator in 2028.  Thank you, Senator Duckworth.

    And thank you to Secretary Clinton for speaking the truth about what enough idiots fucked up in 2016.

  5. 5.

    Tee

    I want to thank you, Anne Laurie, for all the hard work you do in collating this information. I know I can count on a post or two to keep me abreast of the days events. Thank you.

  6. 6.

    FelonyGovt

    @Tee: I want to thank you, Anne Laurie, for all the hard work you do in collating this information.

    Well said! I agree.

  7. 7.

    mrmoshpotato

    @AlaskaReader:

    The problem is not just Trumpism, it is the entire Republican party.

    The Republican Party built the foundation Trump sits atop,
    …and they need to pick up that tab.

    Been a massive shitstain since at least 1973.

  11. 11.

    AlaskaReader

    @mrmoshpotato:

    @brantl:

    The rot goes much further back than 73:

    The Republican Party, during the Chicago held Republican National Convention, nominated Nixon for their nominee for US President in 1960.

    The Party was all in well before 1960.

    We are into the 6th decade of this traitorous and treasonous fascist rot.

  13. 13.

    AlaskaReader

    @brantl: The Republican Party was split somewhat during Ikes years in office so I don’t really consider the entire Republican Party to be all in during those years.

    That’s not to say the Republican Party wasn’t infused with bad faith actors even then, but they didn’t really have complete control until some years after Ike’s nomination.

    That’s the take of this old man, anyway,

     

    @NotMax:    …I wasn’t this old in the 50s so I could still be taught some more.

  16. 16.

    AlaskaReader

    @Chetan Murthy: I’ll have to take it on other’s words that the Republican Party was all in before I was personally able to observe it.  My understanding was that the Republican Party wasn’t always all in.

    Not that I can’t or won’t believe it, it’s just I have memories of Republicans who weren’t fascists.

    Ike’s quote was part of the Republican Party Platform in 1956.

     

    “In all those things which deal with people, be liberal, be human. In all those things which deal with people’s money, or their economy, or their form of government, be conservative.”

    That platform, for those that care to review it, was not fascist.

  19. 19.

    Gretchen

    I’m excited to see that the DLCC is investing in Kansas, of all places! We have some terrific progressive representatives from the Kansas City suburbs, and Governor Laura Kelly is great. My favorite Kelly story is that early in the pandemic she was criticized for still having her perfect short haircut even though salons were closed. Was she evading the regulations she imposed on everyone else? She reported that her husband had been an Eagle Scout, and you can learn just about anything from YouTube. He watched a few videos and figured out how to cut her hair. No gotchas on her.

  21. 21.

    lowtechcyclist

    To see why it will be hard for Republicans to pay lip service to IVF while also pledging fealty to fetal personhood, see @saletan’s close reading of Mike Johnson’s contortions:

    Is that the same Saletan who argued for decades that the Dems could find a compromise with the pro-lifers that would take abortion off the table? If so, fuck him.

  22. 22.

    AlaskaReader

    @Baud: In the 60 convention, Nixon got over a thousand votes on the first go round.  Goldwater, the other nominee put forward in that same convention got, I think, 10 votes.

    Goldwater rose to prominence in the 64 convention.

  23. 23.

    Baud

    @lowtechcyclist:

    While I’m not someone who would say we can never compromise on any issue, it’s remarkable how many prominent voices there are who don’t stand for anything except trying to persuade Dems to assuage Republicans.

  24. 24.

    Nukular Biskits

    Good mornin’, y’all.

    Yes, that was my “junior” US Senator, Cindy Hyde-Smith, who voice the sole objection to unanimous consent.  This is the second time she’s done this.  She’s a major-league God-botherer who can justify (in her own mind) all manner of positions that directly contradict her supposed “sincerely-held religious convictions”, not to mention the best interests of her constituents.

    Yesterday, apparently feeling the heat, she ran to the Tony Perkins’ (yes, that professional hater, bigot and all around asshole) “Washington Watch” to “get the facts out:

    https://x.com/SenHydeSmith/status/1762999099765280873?s=20

    But, then, who is really to blame for her being in the US Senate?

    Answer:  The idiots here in MS.

  25. 25.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud: ​
     

    Tru dat. And while there are many issues where genuine compromises are possible, abortion was never going to be one of them.

  26. 26.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Baud: it’s remarkable how many prominent voices there are who don’t stand for anything except trying to persuade Dems to assuage Republicans.

    It is remarkable. I’ll remark on it by noting they must get a lot of return on investment for their mouthpieces because both-sidesist nonsense dominates the professional paid media.

  27. 27.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @lowtechcyclist: genuine compromises are possible, abortion was never going to be one of them.

    Sure genuine compromise is possible. Genuine compromise being where Republicans get what they want with a cut out for Joe Manchin to mine uteri for coal or something and Democrats better smile and look happy or the deal is off.

  28. 28.

    Matt McIrvin

    @lowtechcyclist: Saletan’s difference-splitting was remarkably obviously stupid even at the time. As I recall, he seemed mesmerized by ultrasound pictures of late-term fetuses, which he claimed were some kind of new information bolstering the anti-abortion side, and he didn’t even get that Roe was a Grand Bargain to begin with. Basically he claimed to be a moderate but he’d completely swallowed anti-abortion extremists’ characterization of the dispute (this was very common in the 1990s-2000s, but a lot of us knew better).

  29. 29.

    gene108

    @FelonyGovt:

    Pregnant women as a carpool.

    States are trying.

    HOV Lane Mom: Fight for pregnant moms to drive in high-occupancy lanes not over

    Watchdog: Rep. Jeff Leach vows to pass ‘unborn passenger bill’ and praises his constituent for her activism.

    SNIP

    A year ago, when Bottone was pregnant, she was stopped by Dallas County deputy sheriffs for driving solo in a high-occupancy vehicle lane on U.S. Highway 75. The rule is two passengers are required in an HOV lane.

    The Plano woman argued that because a new Texas law had declared a fetus a living being, her unborn child should count as a second passenger.

    SNIP

    Both bills died before they could get a floor vote.

    https://www.dallasnews.com/news/watchdog/2023/08/23/hov-lane-mom-fight-for-pregnant-moms-to-drive-in-high-occupancy-lanes-not-over/?outputType=amp

    SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — After a bill allowing pregnant women to use the high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane passed the House on Feb.3, it was rejected in the Senate today.

    The Carpool Lane Usage Modifications bill, would have allowed pregnant women to use the HOV lane. The bill states that a vehicle with a pregnant woman contains two occupants, for purposes of high occupancy vehicle lane usage. It was rejected in a 2-3 vote today by a Utah Senate committee.

    https://www.abc4.com/news/politics/pregnant-women-and-hov-lane-bill-passes-house-moves-to-senate/

  30. 30.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Gretchen: ​
     

    I’m excited to see that the DLCC is investing in Kansas, of all places!

    I think I’ll have to send some more money to the DLCC. I’m really glad to see they’re doing this campaign, and also while I can bypass the DSCC and DCCC and so forth because info about key races is easy to come by, I’ll never be able to substitute my judgment for theirs when it comes to state legislative races across the country.

    And though I’ve never lived in Kansas, I had family there for most of my life and have spent a fair amount of time there over the years, especially while growing up. So I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for the state. So that’s another reason to give.

    Plus there’s an email in my in-box from the DLCC that there’s a triple match through the end of the day.

  33. 33.

    Kay

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Is that the same Saletan who argued for decades that the Dems could find a compromise with the pro-lifers that would take abortion off the table? If so, fuck him.

    They never looked at it from the perspective of womens health. That’s why we had a group of Right wingers and centrists insisting a 16 week ban was a fix when all of the women suing Texas were past 16 weeks when they became aware of fetal or maternal medical issues that put their lives at risk.
    If you listen to the “ban at 16 weeks” people they never mention the mother – it just never occurred to them that she could be at risk, because they don’t care what happens to her. She’s invisible.

  34. 34.

    Argiope

    Emergency contraception prevents FERTILIZATION by delaying the release of an egg until the sperm have died off. It does not cause early abortion. For the fifty-eleventh time. Could we haz some accurate reporting now please?

  36. 36.

    RevRick

    @AlaskaReader: Last month, my Representative, Susan Wild, introduced legislation to protect IVF treatments. She had one GOP cosponsor: Paulina Luna. Yesterday, Luna withdrew her cosponsorship. So, you’re absolutely right. Despite all the Republican protestations about how much they support IVF, we have the receipts that show that they don’t.

  37. 37.

    Bill Arnold

    @gene108:

    HOV Lane Mom: Fight for pregnant moms to drive in high-occupancy lanes not over

    That’s the first step. Next big stop will be that driving by pregnant women will be deemed reckless endangerment of the Unborn Ones. With “reckless driving” as reckless endangerment an intermediate step.

  38. 38.

    VOR

    George Carlin nailed it decades ago:

    “Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to 9 months. After that, they don’t wanna know about you. They don’t wanna hear from you. No nothing! No neonatal care, no daycare, no Head Start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you’re pre-born, you’re fine, if you’re preschool, you’re fucked.”

  39. 39.

    Xenos

    The lack of scientific understanding by the journalists is just appalling. We need to constantly remind them

    1. Embryos, not fetuses, are created and destroyed in IVF treatment.

    2. Whether or not life begins at conception, pregnancy does not.  The loss of unimplanted blastocysts and the like is very normal and natural.

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