Anti-abortion one-upsmanship will haunt Republicans in the election

[Novara]

Anti-abortion one-upsmanship will haunt Republicans in the election

If 2012 was the year of Republican men saying stupid things – from “legitimate rape” to pregnancy from rape being something “God intended”– this must be the year of Republican men simply being stupid. There’s no other way to account for the complete meltdown that the party’s presidential hopefuls are having over abortion, racing to the right in a short-sighted effort to win the nomination while leaving themselves high and dry for the general election.

<snip>

As I find myself (almost) speechless in response to all of these men, I think Sen. Elizabeth Warren said it best: “Did you fall down, hit your head and think you woke up in the 1950s or the 1890s? Should we call for a doctor?”

Republicans vying for their party’s endorsement seem to forget that women’s votes exist. And that while this anti-choice posturing may be beneficial in the primaries, they are handing Hillary Clinton – or whoever the Democratic nominee may be – a mighty large sword to wield against them in the general election.

Jess McIntosh, vice president of communications at EMILY’s List, told me, “They’re so extreme it almost forecloses the possibility of a campaign. No persuadable voters want to hear about your plan to force raped children to give birth. It sounds as monstrous as it is.”

“And how do you argue about parental consent, when if you had your way the wishes of the parents would be meaningless?” she continued, “since every accidental teen and pre-teen pregnancy would be forced to result in birth?”

The GOP contenders are ignoring the fact that one in three American women will have an abortion and that 95% of them will not regret it. Do they think those women will be voting for the candidate who would try to have that decision taken away?

It’s well-established that extreme positions against abortion simply don’t fly with American voters. Measures to give zygotes personhood rights have failed again and again, the majority of Americans don’t want to see Roe v Wade overturned, and most people believe in abortion exceptions. Jocelyn Kiley, associate director at the Pew Research Center, told me that about 75% of Americans believe abortions should be possible in the case of rape. “For and health and life exceptions,” she says, “there’s a broad majority of more than 80%.”

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/19/anti-abortion-haunt-republicans-2016-election

[Gothmog]

1. The GOP war on women is real and the GOP idiots are trying to out do each other