Will Abortion Oust Ted Cruz?

10.17.24

Click to skip ahead: In the States, news from Texas, Colorado and more. Ballot Measure Updates looks at Florida and Arizona. In the Nation, attacks on mifepristone and the latest on Trump’s ‘post-birth’ abortion lie. In 2024 news, Trump joked about a woman killed by an abortion ban. Seriously. Finally, some new messaging to watch out for in What Conservatives Are Saying.

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In the States

If you didn’t watch the U.S. Senate debate in Texas with Ted Cruz and Colin Allred, what are you even doing with your life. Because that was the best ass kicking I’ve seen in a long time. There were so many good moments where Cruz was just fully humiliated by Allred, but it was the exchange on abortion that had me jumping out of my seat. Make sure to watch until the end of the clip to see Allred totally dismantle the notion of ‘pro-life’ and end with this zinger: “When Ted Cruz says he’s pro-life, he doesn’t mean yours.”

Ted Cruz has been running from abortion for months, because he knows that Republicans are losing badly on the issue. Even at the debate, he refused to talk about exceptions for rape and incest—because he knows how out-of-step he is with Americans and Texans.

Cruz has a slight lead over Allred, but it’s way closer than he would like. So if you know folks in Texas, now is the time to reach out. Imagine how incredible it would be if abortion ended up being the thing that ousted Cruz? Heaven.

Since we love good news around here, let’s talk about Colorado: Anti-abortion activists have been trying to pass one of those bullshit ordinances in Pueblo, but the city council voted down that effort this week. (It was close, though: a 4—3 vote.)

The short version is that antis were essentially trying to pass the Comstock Act in Pueblo, which would have banned the shipping of abortion medication or supplies in the town and allowed citizens to sue each other over breaking the ordinance.

Obviously, Colorado is pro-choice, so this would have ran afoul of the state law—which is the point. Anti-abortion groups want to turn one of these ordinances into a legal fight over Comstock that they can take all the way to the Supreme Court. That’s why it’s so vital that we’re paying attention to local attacks.

Quick hits:

• While we’re on Colorado: Colorado Public Radio explains how your vote could impact abortion rights in the state and beyond;

• Abortion isn’t on the ballot in California, but that hasn’t stopped candidates from talking about it;

• And in Wisconsin, Planned Parenthood president Alexis McGill Johnson joined Tanya Atkinson of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin in a column encouraging people to vote.

Ballot Measure Updates

It wouldn’t be a day in abortion rights news if I wasn’t talking about Florida! As you know, Republicans in the state have been hard at work trying to keep Floridians from having a direct say on abortion rights—from intimidating voters with a phony fraud investigation to threatening television stations that carry ads for Amendment 4 with criminal charges. (At least one station stopped running the ad as a result of those threats.)

But we got some rare good news today from a U.S. District Court, which granted Floridians Protecting Freedom a temporary restraining order, agreeing with the group that the state “has crossed the line from advocating against Amendment 4 to censoring speech.”

But wait, it gets better. Judge Mark E. Walker wrote in his ruling, “To keep it simple for the State of Florida: it’s the First Amendment, stupid.” Whew! Too bad I’m already married.

Lauren Brenzel, Campaign Director of Yes on 4, said, “This critical initial victory is a triumph for every Floridian who believes in democracy and the sanctity of the First Amendment.”

The temporary block stops Gov. Ron DeSantis and his administration from “taking any further actions to coerce, threaten, or intimate repercussions directly or indirectly to television stations, broadcasters, or other parties for airing Yes on 4’s speech…” The decision comes after Florida abortion rights activist sued the state this week over Republicans’ increasing threats to democracy.

In less terrific news for Florida abortion rights, anti-abortion activists are suing to get Amendment 4 off the ballot, arguing that there was “widespread voter fraud” in the signature-gathering process.

As you know, DeSantis launched a fraud investigation into 36,000 already-verified signatures in support of putting Amendment 4 on the ballot—an unprecedented attack on voters and democracy. Now this anti-abortion group is using that sham investigation to try to stop voters from having a say on abortion rights at all.

And if you're wondering how closely tied these anti-abortion activists are to Florida Republicans, consider this: Not only is their group represented by a former state Supreme Court justice, but—coincidentally, I’m sure—the state declared just enough petition signatures 'invalid' to let the antis claim that Floridians Protecting Freedom fell short of the required number for the ballot measure.

Oh, and the state department that suddenly found all this fraud? That’s the Office of Election Crimes & Security—the same department that DeSantis used to target and arrest Black voters as part of a broader intimidation effort.

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POLITICO reports that Arizona progressives are concerned that the pro-choice ballot measure isn’t driving enough people to vote for Democratic candidates. Pollsters are hearing from voters that while they plan to support the abortion rights amendment, they also will be voting for Donald Trump, Senate candidate Kari Lake and other Republicans. Which is…infuriating.

Chris Love from Arizona for Abortion Access says, “I hear that a lot of times, even from Planned Parenthood donors, who tell me [they’re voting Republican] because they’re fiscally conservative.” Absolutely wild.

But Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes says that she thinks abortion rights will have a strong impact in November—especially now that voters have seen what a 15-week ban is like.

“I am the attorney general of Arizona because of the Dobbs decision. And I know that the independents of Arizona understand which candidate in the presidential race is going to support their freedom and their ability to determine what happens to their bodies.”

Here’s hoping.

Quick hits: Rick Weiland, co-founder of Dakotans for Health, writes in The Washington Post about the attacks on democracy in South Dakota; Axios on Arizona’s abortion rights ballot measure and how it could help those who are leaving the state for care; And for more on Amendment 4, The 19th did a deep dive this week into the Florida pro-choice ballot measure.

In the Nation

Abortion, Every Day broke the news yesterday about the latest attack on mifepristone—a lawsuit from the Attorneys General of Idaho, Missouri and Kansas seeking to rollback access to the abortion medication across the country, not just in anti-choice states. If you missed AED’s explainer on the details of the suit and what it all means, read it now below:

The GOP's Attack on Abortion Pills is Here

You all know I’ve been harping on Trump’s ‘post-birth’ abortion bullshit for months, so I was really happy to see this piece in The Atlantic about the term from law professors Greer Donley and Jill Wieber Lens. What makes the lie of ‘post-birth’ abortion so extraordinarily cruel is that Trump and his cohort are talking about parents who choose palliative care for their fatally ill newborns.

As Donley and Lens point out, families who choose perinatal palliative care (PPC) are simply saving their child from painful medical interventions done in vain. What makes the attack even worse isn’t just that the parents he calls ‘executioners’ are in the middle of a tragic situation—but that anti-abortion activists often push PPC as the choice women should make when they’re faced with a doomed pregnancy.

You know about this if you’ve read my ‘Calculated Cruelty’ series; basically, the anti-abortion movement claims that it’s fine to force someone to carry a nonviable pregnancy to term because they can just seek out perinatal palliative care. But apparently to Trump and the Republicans repeating his talking points, those women are ‘murderers’ no matter what they do.

Quick hits:

• Chase Strangio of the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project writes at TIME that trans and abortion rights activists are fighting for the same thing;

• Karen Thompson of Pregnancy Justice gave some remarks about me that were republished in Ms. magazine and made me cry;

• And The Guardian’s (excellent) abortion rights reporter Carter Sherman talks about the reproductive rights landscape.

2024

Let’s talk about the Fox News town hall that Donald Trump did last night. We saw Trump bust out his usual talking points on abortion, like saying “I believe in the exceptions for rape, incest, life of the mother,” and claiming he sent the issue back to the states. I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again—that line from Trump is a huge opportunity for Vice President Kamala Harris to remind voters what ‘back to the states’ really means.

After all, we’re in a moment when Republicans are doing anything and everything they can to stop voters from having a say. In addition to the insanity in Florida, there are months of attacks on democracy that Harris could point to as proof that ‘back to the states’ doesn’t mean shit. (Leaving aside the fact that a person’s geographic location shouldn’t determine what kind of healthcare they get!) I wrote last month about why I think this is so important:

Kamala Harris Needs To Call Out Ballot Attacks

Speaking of Trumps’ lies on abortion, the disgraced former president claimed last night that anti-abortion laws in some states will “be redone” because “they’re too tough.” How Trump plans to get states to “redo” their laws went unremarked on.

He is desperate for people—women voters, especially—to believe that he’s moderate on abortion. Trump also repeated his line about “a vote of the people,” which is something he likes to say to give voters the impression they have a choice even as abortion bans are passed against their wishes.

As the Associated Press pointed out in an article about Trump’s flip-flopping on abortion rights, voters don’t have a direct say on abortion rights (or anything else) in about half the states:

“This is particularly true for those living in the South, where Republican-controlled legislatures, many of which have been gerrymandered to give the GOP disproportionate power, have enacted some of the strictest abortion bans since Roe v. Wade was overturned.”

Now, we’ve all come to expect these kinds of lies from Trump on abortion; but what he did next managed to shock even me. (Especially given that he’s trying to pretend to be reasonable on the issue!)

Fox News host Harris Faulkner mentioned that the family of Amber Thurman—the Georgia woman killed by her state’s abortion ban—was doing a press call at the same time as the event. In response, Trump said sarcastically, “Oh, that’s nice.” And then said: “We’ll get better ratings, I promise.” We’ll get better ratings. It really needs to be seen to be believed:

I just don’t understand how any woman could vote for him, but apparently some are more attached to their racism than their own rights and humanity.

While Trump was using a woman’s death to make a joke about ratings, Harris’ campaign ran an ad—on Fox News, during Trump’s event—to remind voters what this election is about. I’ve shared this ad featuring Hadley Duvall before, but it truly is one of the most powerful I’ve seen come out of any campaign. (I also got to meet Hadley at an event tonight, and she’s as remarkable as she seems.)

This comes at the same time that the Democratic National Committee is putting up billboards in battleground states calling out Trump on abortion. DNC spokesperson Maddy Mundy says, “Women are dying because of Donald Trump, who enabled the extreme abortion bans we're seeing MAGA Republicans enact in the states—ones that Trump calls 'a beautiful thing to watch.’”

Anti-Abortion Strategy

I also want to point out that Trump has been repeating a talking point I’m seeing trickle down to other Republican candidates: After saying that he gave abortion back to the states, Trump and his spokespeople like to say that he supports birth control and IVF.

Now, the fact that this needs to be said at all is a red flag—it makes clear that those issues are on the table. But obviously Republicans have gotten some sort of memo that talking about IVF and birth control will help them to pivot and seem less extreme.

This is why, however, it’s so important that reporters are asking any Republican candidate what they mean when they say they support IVF and birth control. What kinds of birth control? IUDs and emergency contraception? And do they support the entire IVF process? Would they allow it to continue to happen unfettered, free from onerous regulations and rules on embryo destruction?

If they want to bet on contraception and IVF, let’s at least make them say what they really believe out loud.