Conservatives' Obsession with Tampons & Tim Walz
8.9.2024
Click to skip ahead: In 2024, how Trump is giving Harris-Walz a roadmap of how to attack him on abortion rights. Keep An Eye On looks at an upcoming Alabama ruling that will have implications for the whole country. In the States, some quick hits. Ballot Measure Updates looks at the latest in Florida, Arizona, Arkansas and South Dakota. In What Conservatives Are Saying, a tampon-related attack on Tim Walz. Yes seriously. Finally, In the Nation, more proof that Americans are pro-choice.
2024
I wrote yesterday about Donald Trump’s disastrous press conference—even his former press secretary called it “an absolute dumpster fire”—and how clear it was that he had no idea was mifepristone was. More on mifepristone in a moment, but first let’s talk about what else Trump said about abortion yesterday. Because wow.
In addition to spouting his usual nonsense, claiming that everyone wanted Roe overturned and he just gave the issue back to “the people,” the disgraced former president tried to downplay how important abortion will be come November. Trump said the issue had become “very much subdued,” “very much tapered down,” “much less of an issue,” and a “very small issue.” He insisted, “I don’t think it’s a big factor anymore.”
Something tells me that the women going septic or being forced into hysterectomies don’t think abortion is “much less of an issue.”
The other talking points that Trump hit on gave the Harris-Walz campaign a perfect road map for how to attack him on abortion rights. For example, Trump gets into ‘exceptions’ as a way to come across as more moderate on abortion; that’s a good opportunity to remind people that exceptions largely don’t exist.
His comments about “the will of the people” also provide an opening for Harris and Walz: They can talk about the attacks on democracy in every state where abortion is on the ballot. Those stories are truly so bananas that if Americans knew about them, I really do think it would make a difference:
Trump also talked about ‘post-birth’ abortion again, accusing Walz of supporting the murder of newborns and making clear that he won’t be losing the insane talking point anytime soon. You all know I think Harris should go on offense, and explain to Americans what Trump is actually talking about here: palliative care for fatally-ill newborns.
I can’t imagine a more powerful message to voters than explaining that Trump is calling grieving parents murderers. For more on this, read my column about how we can put an end to this horrific talking point once and for all:
Let’s get back to Trump’s comments on mifepristone, because it’s been sort of fascinating to see the media coverage interpreting his garbled response as interest in banning abortion medication. As I’ve said before, it’s clear Trump will ban abortion medication—and do anything else the anti-abortion movement wants—but I don’t think that’s what he was getting at yesterday. He simply didn’t understand the word. (Just as he didn’t know what ‘contraception’ meant.)
This is the problem journalists have with covering Trump; they report on what he says as if it actually means something. But we all know that Trump lies constantly, and often doesn’t know what he’s talking about. So we’re put in this weird position of reading articles whose end points are correct—Trump is going to ban mifepristone—but still aren’t correctly interpreting his actual comments. It is, in short, a mind fuck.
That’s why I appreciate pieces like this one from Andrea González-Ramírez at The Cut, which makes clear that actually it doesn’t matter what Trump said about abortion or if he knows what mifepristone is:
“Though Trump and other Republicans have tried to distance themselves from the issue of abortion, going as far as not mentioning the word at all during the Republican National Convention last month, their plans are clear.”
Keep An Eye On
We’re waiting on an important ruling in Alabama: A federal judge will decide whether the state can prosecute those who help patients get out-of-state abortions. You may remember this case: Essentially, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said he would prosecute anyone who ‘aids or abets’ abortions, claiming that they were part of a criminal conspiracy.
While the threat could apply to anyone, Marshall’s comments were clearly directed at abortion funds and activists who help patients with travel, funding, and logistics to get out-of-state care. So in response, the Yellowhammer Fund and West Alabama Women’s Center (WAWC) sued Marshall’s office to prevent being prosecuted. The groups argue that Marshall’s threats violate their First Amendment rights and create a chilling effect—they can’t even provide a patient with information about a website without fearing prosecution.
WAWC executive director Robin Marty says, “We are trying to deal with this thin line between performing all of the care that we can for a patient and worrying about whether our staff is going to be arrested.”
Also, please remember that in Marshall’s legal filing arguing that these groups are part of a “criminal conspiracy,” the Alabama AG also claimed that the state could restrict women’s travel if it wanted to. Marshall wrote that because the state has a “strong, legitimate interests including preserving unborn life,” the government could restrict women’s travel in the same way they do sex offenders who want to change residences. Yes, seriously:
In the States
A new Maine law that protects out-of-state patients seeking abortion or gender-affirming care has just gone into effect;
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on how a radical anti-abortion activist is influencing politics in Wisconsin and beyond;
More on the new Illinois abortion protections;
The Los Angeles Times on two bubble zone laws gaining traction in California;
And Americans for Contraception’s giant IUD was in Montana this week.
Ballot Measure Updates
With Florida’s ballot measure getting massive and bipartisan support, even Donald Trump had to admit that he thought the pro-choice amendment would win come November. During his press conference this week, Trump said, “I think probably the vote will go in a little more liberal way than people thought.” He also refused to tell reporters how he would vote on the amendment himself, saying, “So I don’t want to tell you now.”
Meanwhile, more than 100 health care providers in Florida have publicly endorsed Amendment 4, signing onto a letter that blasts Republicans who “have inserted themselves into our exam rooms, our hospitals, and our relationships with our patients.”
“They have put our patients’ lives in danger,” the healthcare providers write.
In Arizona, an anti-abortion group is suing to keep a pro-choice measure off the November ballot. Because like every other anti-abortion group, they know that when voters have a say on abortion, abortion rights win. The suit from Arizona Right to Life was already dismissed, but that’s not stopping the organization from appealing to a Maricopa County judge, asking her to throw out all the signatures supporting the pro-choice measure. (Arizona for Abortion Access collected twice the number of signatures they needed.)
Their claim is that the language of the petition was confusing and didn’t explain that the ballot measure would allow for abortion after ‘viability’. The truth? The measure protects abortion rights up until ‘viability’ unless a pregnancy is threatening a woman’s health or life. From Dawn Penich, a spokesperson for the amendment:
“This appeal shows yet again that they are willing to do and say anything—no matter how desperate or dishonest—to deprive Arizonans of their right to direct democracy.”
Indeed. Remember, Arizona’s abortion policies sparked a national backlash earlier this year after the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of an 1864 abortion ban. The legislature had to repeal that ban after the decision because the fury over the decision was everywhere.
I’m also keeping a close eye on South Dakota, where abortion rights are heading to the ballot—we think. An anti-abortion group, Life Defense Fund, is also pushing a lawsuit forward to keep the issue away from voters. (They’re in a bit of a rush because the deadline to print election ballots is almost here.)
Finally, we’re still waiting for a decision out of Arkansas about whether all the signatures to get abortion on the ballot will be counted. Republican leaders in the state have claimed that pro-choice activists didn’t fill out all the correct paperwork; essentially, they’re trying to keep voters from having a say on abortion rights via a technicality.
I don’t know how many different ways Republicans can make clear that they don’t want Americans to have a choice on abortion. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it a million times over: If they’re so sure that we live in a ‘pro-life’ country, why not let voters decide?
What Conservatives Are Saying
Why are they so bad at this?? Something about the Harris/Walz ticket has Republicans absolutely flailing and coming out with the most bizarre attacks. Their latest? Calling Walz “Tampon Tim” because he made tampons available in school bathrooms. What a monster!
The New Republic outlines how pundits like Megyn Kelly and ‘Libs of TikTok’ Chaiya Raichik blasted out the nickname, claiming that Walz forced schools to put tampons in boys’ bathrooms. Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt (recently linked to Project 2025) even said, “there is no greater threat to a woman’s health than leaders…who support putting tampons in men’s bathrooms in public schools.”
First of all, that would be fine! Who fucking cares? But all the law actually says is that schools should “provide students with access to menstrual products at no charge,” and that the products “must be available to all menstruating students in restrooms.” From the editorial board of the Star Tribune :
“That might mean making these products available for free in various locations for all who need them, such as unisex bathrooms, girls’ bathrooms, the school nurse or the front office, but not necessarily in boys’ bathrooms.”
When it became clear that they couldn’t credibly keep up the lie about boys’ bathrooms, Republicans claimed that Walz was somehow sexualizing little girls by requiring tampons be available to to students in 4th grade and up.
Conservative logic: Little girls should be forced into childbirth, but protected from tampons. If Republicans knew what was good for them, they’d steer clear of talking about anything having to do with vaginas.
In the Nation
If you’re reading this newsletter, chances are you already know that abortion is incredible popular: Most Americans have wanted abortion to be legal for decades, and that support has only grown since Roe was overturned. So it won’t surprise you to find out that most voters continue to oppose the Supreme Court decision that ended Roe—but given all the bad news we get every day, I think it’s important we take all the good news (and polls) that we can.
CNN reports that a new Marquette Law School poll shows that two-thirds of Americans oppose Dobbs, the ruling that overturned decades of abortion rights protections. Unsurprisingly, the poll also showed that most voters also disapprove of the Court more broadly.
The president of the Heritage Foundation and architect of Project 2025, Kevin Roberts, published a new book where he compares abortion to slavery and says that it “doesn’t come from the media or the government or the elite or the left or even Planned Parenthood…it comes straight from hell.” Super normal stuff.
Finally, if you want to know how scared conservatives are of Harris—and how much they know that feminism resonates with voters—consider that their latest attack on the vice president’s husband, Doug Emhoff, is to accuse him of “toxic masculinity.”
Quick hits:
That Alabama case is a real worry. These are the idiots that gave us the entirely un medical term: "extra-uterine children" giving more right to ten cells in a Petrie dish, than to women.
Kevin Roberts is exhibit A for why separation of church and state is crucial. According to an article in The Guardian Roberts is a member of the very, very conservative Catholic organization Opus Dei.
Roberts has NO business imposing his personal religious creed on all American women.