On Thursday, the trigger ban on abortion went into effect in Texas. To note the date, Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke’s campaign put up its first campaign ad and its focus is abortion. Shocker, I know. Governor Abbott’s campaign went a different route. It released a personal narrative kind of ad. Cecilia Abbott talks about her husband and their life from when they were first married and includes the time he spent recovering from the accident that left him paralyzed.

Robert Francis uses a politically correct and inclusive mix of women in one ad, and a politically-mixed marriage couple in a second ad. The husband is a Republican and the wife is a Democrat. Naturally, in Beto’s ad, the husband decides to vote for him because of the Texas abortion ban.

Governor Abbott counters with an ad that points to Beto’s extreme views on abortion.

You see how this is going to go right up until the election in November. Robert Francis O’Rourke really has nothing to run on and the abortion issue is a good opportunity for him to exploit. Progressives are ok with abortion right up until the time the baby is delivered and Beto is no exception to that. His campaign has organized women to campaign for him, especially suburban women and Independent voters. It may bump him up in the polls a bit as the ad saturates the airwaves but if I have to bet, I’d still bet that Greg Abbott wins re-election. At the present time, polling by the Dallas Morning News/UT-Tyler poll shows a seven point lead by Abbott.

Abortion is an issue that Republican candidates should address and not cede it to the progressive extremists. Many Republicans, like a majority of voters, think there should be exceptions for rape and incest in the Texas law. If Republican candidates support the more strident law which excludes those two exceptions, they have to be able to address that as it will surely come up in candidate debates.

Texas previously had a six-week abortion ban in effect since before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.

The trigger law only permits exceptions to save the life of the mother and makes performing an abortion otherwise a felony. Doctors who perform them can face up to life in prison.

The Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v Wade and delivering abortion law back to the states and away from federal law played a big role in a special election in New York. A Republican should have won the district race, in a normal year, but there is nothing normal in 2022. His Democrat opponent used abortion to his party’s advantage and won the election. That was in New York, though, a deep blue state and it was a special election. It’s apples and oranges compared to a traditional general election in Texas. We’ll have to wait and see how abortion plays in the Texas gubernatorial election this year.

The ads first aired during the Houston Texans game on Thursday night and will air Friday night during the Dallas Cowboys game.