Other Republicans apparently believe that they can act as if it is still the pre-Dobbs world when staking out maximalist positions — for instance, bans with no exceptions for rape or incest — had no significant downside because such proposals would never take effect. No more. Most places, this is politically deadly overreach.
The answer here is, to paraphrase Ronald Reagan, simple, if not necessarily easy. Pro-life Republicans should say that they ultimately seek sweeping protections for unborn life but realize that they have to do much more public persuasion and, in the meantime, support a compromise proposal of some sort, say a gestational limit of 15 weeks.
For pro-lifers, this falls painfully short. But it would be in keeping with the trajectory of successful past campaigns of moral and social reform — settle for progress in the right direction, occupy politically defensible ground, and then advance over time.
Meanwhile, abortion restrictions are under assault for allegedly not providing broad and clear enough exceptions for the health of the mother. In a viral video out of South Carolina last week, a Republican state representative said he regretted voting for a heartbeat bill, banning abortion after about six weeks, after he heard an excruciating story of a 19-year-old denied care for her miscarriage.
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